Devil's Due
by Stephensmat
Summary: "Ahh, but there is something you want more than justice. You don't ask; because you think it's impossible. But if there was such power in the universe... or any other universe... what would you wish for? And if I could make it happen?" Gold tempted, flashing bright yellow cats-eyes at Beckett. "Would that be worth something to you, Detective?"
1. Would That Be Worth Something

**DEVIL'S DUE**

_"__You know, being married to Richard was great. Full of romance and excitement." Meredith explained nostalgically. "Like a deliciously sweet soufflé. And then one day I realized he knew everything about me. My deepest secrets, my worse pain. Enough to fill a million novels. But I didn't know enough about him to even write a pamphlet. For instance, whenever I asked him how he felt about never knowing his father, he would smirk. You know the way he smirks. And then he would throw out a quip and change the subject. Our marriage went one way. It wasn't enough for me. I mean, soufflé's are wonderful. But sooner or later, they always fall."_

* * *

It had been eight weeks since that day, and Beckett couldn't get Meredith's parting shot out of her head. Kate knew nothing about Richard's life.

She decided she needed to attack this problem, but she knew Castle would deflect. She needed an angle. A way to get to the truth without making it clear there was an interrogation going on at all.

Castle was a tricky target to pin down. He didn't have a lot of weak spots. Alexis was one, but her loyalties to her father were too earnest and absolute. She would tweak her dad's nose but never reveal anything. That left just one option.

"Martha." Beckett put on her friendliest smile when the door opened.

"Katherine, darling." Martha took in the detective with her usual flair. "Richard isn't here."

"I know." Kate smiled winningly. "I was wondering if you were free for lunch?"

* * *

It was the most carefully prepared interrogation that Kate had ever undertaken, weaving friendly concern with polite chit-chat. Kate carefully steered the conversation to Life in the Castle Clan, during the Pre-Beckett days. By the salad course, Martha had opened up about it considerably.

"I didn't always live with him you know." Martha offered. "If you and Richard ever... needed me gone, I could probably find a place. Thing is... I've grown accustomed to a certain..."

"Comfortable lifestyle?" Beckett supplied.

"Is that terrible?"

"Not at all; I'm just surprised that you didn't already have one." Kate kept it light. "You strike me as the Zelda Fitzgerald type."

"Oh dear. High praise indeed." Martha toasted with her white wine; and took a bite of salad. "No, I did have a pretty comfortable set-up. Things happened."

There was more to it than that, and Kate pressed. "For example?"

Martha looked at her cannily. "But of course, I'm betting you already know about that?"

"Castle mentioned that you'd been conned; and needed a place to stay until you could get back on your feet." Kate admitted. "But this was back when we first met."

"Jake Thompson." Martha agreed. "Loved him dearly and then one day he was gone with... well, with everything."

"You know... I could try to find him." Kate offered. "I _am_ a cop."

"Tempting, but..." Martha trailed off in the middle of the sentence. "No."

Kate was intrigued. "Martha." She pushed gently. "I've seen that reaction before. You're scared of him."

"Not of him." Martha shook her head quickly.

Kate saw the reaction, and just waited, letting Martha build up to a confession on her own.

Martha chewed her lip. "You know why I didn't like any of Richard's ex-wives?"

"Offhand I could give you a dozen reasons." Kate said matter of factly.

Martha snorted. "It's because I couldn't confide in any of them. Can I confide in you? I tell you this story, you don't tell Richard?"

Kate considered the implications, and gave a single nod.

Martha thus began to tell her story.

"It all started when I was doing a stage play of Sweet Charity off Broadway. I had auditioned for the lead, but it went to a more experienced actress. And by 'experienced' of course, I mean really too old to play the part."

Kate snorted.

"But if was my first supporting role where I actually had a dressing room, which was great for me because I had a three year old son. How a three year old gets kicked out of pre-school I don't know, but Richard found a way."

Kate burst out laughing.

* * *

At only two years old, Richard was excited to follow his mother to work. Martha was trying to keep up with the director, who speed-walked through the area backstage. "Your part isn't huge, but has enough lines that it could be helpful to your resume. Understand?"

Martha hurried to keep up. "Yessir."

"Keep your kid out of the way. You're not the only actress on stage with a kid to support, but you're the most junior one. Understand?"

"Yessir."

"You're replacing a young woman that we've worked with before. She slipped off with her boyfriend for drinks, and nobody's seen her since. Last time she did that, we got a postcard saying she'd eloped; but make no mistake, if she's back after opening night, then she gets her room back. It's in her contract."

"I understand." Martha said with quick acceptance. In truth, if she only had one appearance on stage, it would be enough to keep her and her son fed for another day.

The Director opened the door for her and Martha tried not to squeal at having a dressing room for the first time. "You'll find your lines on the table. First rehearsal in fifteen minutes. Don't be late."

Martha started to answer; when the door slammed shut and she was left with her son in sudden silence.

"I'm gonna put him in a book!" Richie said brightly; and pulled out a notepad.

Martha chuckled at her son's antics and went to the dressing room table. She would have to do her own makeup.

"Think I should make him the hero, or the villain?" Richie asked his mother eagerly.

She tried to shush him. "Either, but for now, I really have to rehearse this."

"Sorry mom."

"Ahh, don't be sorry, my boy." A voice creaked. "After all, we're all just stories in the end. Best to make it entertaining."

Martha spun in surprise to see a man in overalls mending a costume with a needle and thread. He smiled warmly at her. "Didn't mean to startle; but I help out with this and that fairly often, and nobody was using this room until just now." He held up the needle, which seemed to be trailing a slender gold thread. "I'm good with needles. And threads."

"I'm sorry, I was told this was Lisa's dressing room." Martha said awkwardly. "I'm just using it until... well, until she's found."

The man rose and leaned his cane. "Yes indeed. And you get her part too, from what I hear. Did you ever meet darling Lisa?"

Martha shook her head. "No, can't say that I did."

The man gestured with his cane, and Martha turned to see a beautiful oil paining that she hadn't noticed before, with a solid gold frame hanging on the wall. The painting was of a beautiful young woman dressed in a stage costume. It was a fantastic painting of a flawlessly beautiful woman. "Is that her?" Martha breathed.

"You could say that." The Stranger said. "She said she wanted to look as beautiful as that forever."

Young Richard came forward and held out a hand fearlessly. "I'm Richie."

The stranger shook his hand politely. "Pleased to meet you, young man. I'm Mister Gold." He looked down at the boy. "So, you like stories then?" He reached into a satchel he was carrying and pulled out a large leatherbound book. "Consider this a gift. The last kid who read it... moved on."

Richard looked quietly thrilled; and Martha could make out the title on the cover. 'Once Upon A Time...'

"Richard? Remember to thank... Oh, I'm sorry." Martha remembered herself. "I'm Martha. Martha Rogers, and this is my son."

"Martha." Gold shook her hand politely. "What a lovely name."

* * *

Martha took a slug of her third glass and explained to Kate. "So Gold and I met. We chatted for a bit... I remember that nobody really liked him; but I couldn't think why. He seemed charming enough. He offered to watch Richard a few times during rehearsals. See, the lead went to a woman named Carlotta Lansik..."

"Ohh, I've heard of her." Kate said excitedly.

"Everyone has. But nobody seems to know what a cow she was. She was a beast. Cruel and malicious to everyone. The Director's sole function was to keep her happy." Martha said in a voice that spoke of absolute doom. "It was two weeks later, when her... _legacy_, was assured."

* * *

Carlotta started the song again. She got halfway through the opening line before her voice cracked.

"What is that, the fourth time she's missed that note?" Martha hissed to herself; knowing that nobody was close enough to hear her.

Almost nobody.

"One wonders how she manages to keep the producer so happy." Gold's voice said in her ear.

Martha didn't jump. It was hardly the first time he had done that in the last two weeks.

"Trust me." The young woman whispered back. "It's not that hard to guess."

Gold let out a little giggle that raised the hairs on the back of Martha's neck.

"Okay, take five!" The director shouted; and everyone on stage relaxed. Martha turned to face Gold. "She has to straighten up soon or she'll kill the whole production. And probably herself if the reviews come out."

"There are worse things than dying, dearie." Gold said with a cold smirk.

"Like what?" Martha snorted.

Gold elaborately gestured to the other side of the stage. The leading lady was peering up at the lights, then to the Director, and then back again with a pained look of worry. "Take a look at our star attraction. Why is Carlotta so scared of the stage lights?"

Martha snorted. "Easy. They aren't flattering. And she's worried the director is going to notice that she looks about fifteen years too old for the part."

"This is a relatively small production for someone with Carlotta's resume. Carlotta thought that by now she'd have an Oscar, and yet here she is, past her prime, terrified of wrinkles..." Gold said without sympathy. "And clawing away at anyone who tries to get her off the stage before she can face it."

Martha shivered. "I hope never to be like that. To be that... desperate."

Gold tapped his cane. "Mm. One wonders how everyone else deals with it."

"Kids." Martha shrugged. "That's part of the reason we want our kids to have more than we do growing up."

Gold snorted. "As a retirement policy?"

"No, nothing so selfish. Just... Someone who won't trade us in for the younger model." Martha said, not smiling any more. "My kid... he's got the bug from his mother."

"He wants to act?"

"Not act. Entertain." Martha sighed. "I came home last night; and he had written me a play. Twenty pages long; one act, two characters. He said he wrote it for me."

"How was it?"

"Terrible. My son loves writing stores, but they're so..." Martha waved it off. "He's young. He'll grow out of it."

"Don't deny the power of chasing a passion, Martha." Gold said with a smirk. "All it takes is someone to help you through the rough patches. A friend in the right place can set a man up for life."

"Mm." Martha was unconvinced. "You think so? The acting profession is unforgiving. There are thirty hopefuls for every extra on stage. The world of writing even more so. There's nothing I would love more than to see my son get everything he hopes for, become a star..."

Gold turned to face her, and she froze. His eyes had turned Golden and Sharp. Martha took a step back from the sudden burst of power that flitted from his eyes to hers. "Everything you once wanted for yourself, you now want for your son?" Gold challenged.

Martha shivered violently. "Yes."

"If you could be sure of that..." Gold said, smoother than silk. "Everything comes with a price. You want your son to have everything you'd wish for him; to have success follow him, and his dreams come true. You want him to have a hugely successful life doing something he loves instead of something he has to suffer through?"

Martha was trembling, but couldn't place why. She just couldn't look away from those eyes. "Yes."

"Is that for him, or for you?" Gold hissed; and Martha stepped back with a gasp. Just for a second, it looked like his teeth were pointier, his tongue forked like a snake. "Do you want your child's future assured? Or are you just looking for a retirement package? Someone you can rely on in your old age?"

Martha swallowed. "I can make my own way. But it's a young woman's game. Every day Carlotta stays under that spotlight, is another chance I don't have."

"And if your wishes _could_ come true..." Gold grinned, triumph in is eyes. "If you could have your chance _and_ your son could have his... Would that be _worth_ something to you, Miss Rogers?"

"Yes." Martha whispered; soft enough that she could barely hear her own voice.

"I could make it happen." Gold crooned.

"Why?" Martha whispered. She should have asked 'how', but had no doubts absolutely that he could do it, so she didn't have to wonder. Part of her didn't want to know. "What's in it for you?"

Gold shrugged that off casually. "Ohhh, lets just say... you'll owe me a favor." He held out his hand. "Do we have a deal?"

Martha bit her lip, and accepted the handshake. "Deal."

The second she had spoken, the instant she had touched his hand, someone behind her suddenly screamed. "LOOK OUT!"

Martha spun as the old theater chandelier suddenly came loose from it's chain and plummeted to the stage... landing squarely on Carlotta, killing her instantly.

Martha spun back to Gold, and found he was gone.

* * *

"I went to the Director, and..." Martha took a fortifying gulp of her drink. "He said there was no stage hand named Gold in the theater, and never had been. Then he told me that they needed a new leading lady; and since the only reason Carlotta had the lead was because she was sleeping with the producers... They gave the title role to me."

Kate let out a low whistle. "Wow."

"I couldn't believe how little everyone seemed to care that the lead had been turned into a pancake. Every time I tried to bring it up, all they would say was how lucky I was." Martha slugged back her drink and signaled for another. "The next day Richard entered a short story for some competition that his school was part of... and he won first prize. His story got published in the paper. He took it as a sign and started writing non stop."

Kate felt cold for some reason. "Martha... when did Gold come to collect?"

"Three months before you first came into our lives. Forty years. Forty years it took him to come back. By that time; I was living with my boyfriend, Richard had Alexis, and Derrick Storm was his biggest series of bestsellers." Kate whispered. "And I won't tell you what he wanted. I still can't believe it."

Kate reached out a hand. "Tell me."

* * *

Martha was slow dancing with her boyfriend Jake. Soft jazz in her loft-space apartment; a bottle of Chardonnay chilling nicely on the counter; and a plate of oysters waiting for the song to end. Martha loved Jake so much.

"What are you thinking?" She asked him as he dipped her gently to the music.

Jake smiled warmly. "That... it's rare to find such a perfect moment."

"Almost perfect." Martha pulled him in for a rich full kiss... and pulled back when she felt something in his jacket pocket press against her chest. He pulled back a bit instantly when he realized, but it was too late. The question was clear in her eyes, and he reached into his pocket obligingly.

It was a ring box. Martha felt her jaw drop.

Jake put one finger over her lips suddenly. "I was going to save that surprise for after dinner. But if you were... agreeable; I could go get the bottle of champagne I've had on ice at my place?"

Martha smiled, feeling tears forming in the corner of her eye. She was an actress; and loved it when someone cared enough to make a production of a special moment. "I'm not going anywhere."

Jake broke the clinch, and gave her the box. "Don't open it till I get back?"

"I won't." She promised.

Jake slipped out, and Martha tried to smother a shriek of excitement. Even in her late sixties, this was the happiest night of her life. She pounced on the Ring box as soon as the door closed; and saw the beautiful diamond ring inside. She smiled broadly at it.

"Such a heart-warming scene." A voice commented brightly.

Martha spun. "YOU!"

Gold was sitting with his feet up on the loveseat. "Me. I hate to sully the moment with work, dearie. But you and I have unfinished business."

Martha felt her jaw drop, a knife edge of fear hitting her. "After forty years, you just just show up... in my... _locked_ apartment?"

"I didn't say when I'd collect. Only that I would." He dared her.

Martha was shaking. "But... you haven't..." She looked him up and down. "You haven't aged a day..."

"Clean living." He excused. "You got everything you wanted. A career you could live off; happiness with a man that loves you, a family filled with success that you could depend on... Did you think such things came free?"

Martha bit her lip. "Did you kill Carlotta Lansik?"

"I kept my deal." Gold retorted. "Everyone has their Wishes, Miss Rogers. Carlotta wanted to stay famous forever. And she got her wish. An experienced actress, cut off at the edge of her prime. A terrible tragedy the papers would say. As tragic as her career would have been if she'd lived. She should have read the fine print." He stood up and tapped his cane elaborately. "Speaking of that, I'm here to collect."

* * *

"So what did he want?" Kate pressed; caught up in the story.

* * *

"You want WHAT?!" Martha screamed in horror.

"Your granddaughter." Gold smirked. "Alexis Castle. Such a lovely name. Don't you agree?"

"No!" Martha said seriously. "No, you can't have her."

"Not my problem if you don't like the nature of the game." Gold challenged. "Didn't you enjoy your time in the spotlight? Didn't you like meeting Jake? Didn't you say you wanted Richard to have all that he got?"

"Who's to say that had anything to do with you?" Martha challenged with a strength she didn't really feel. "What do you want Alexis for anyway? Why would you want such a sweet sixteen year-" Martha broke off suddenly, bile rising in her throat. "No. It can't happen."

Gold's eyes flashed. "NOBODY BREAKS A DEAL WITH ME!" He shrieked suddenly.

Martha stood firm. "NO! You don't get Alexis! Ask for anything else; but you don't get her."

"Don't forget who gave you this lifestyle, dearie." Gold growled. "I can take it all back."

"The hell you can." Martha spat at him. "And even if you could, go ahead. But you're not taking Alexis. Everything I've gotten since that day... is nothing compared to my family. If you had kids, you'd know that!"

Gold's eyes darkened. "Ooh, and I was willing to make this fun until you said that."

"Alexis is off the table." Martha said with finality. "Anything else; anything you want. But not my kid, and definitely not my grandkid."

Gold smirked. "Remember you said that."

* * *

Martha sniffed into her fresh drink. "He left. Ten minutes later; Richard calls up and tells me he's decided to kill off Derrick Storm. He says he just can't write im any more." She whimpered a little. "I told him that was a bad idea, that it was his biggest seller. I told him not to kill the golden goose; but... he couldn't be swayed."

Kate tried to snap her out of it. "You can't think that-"

"An hour after that, I realized Jake wasn't back yet, and I called him. His cellphone was off, his home number was off the air. My bank called me a few hours later and told me that my account had been cleaned out by Jake... and that Jake Thompson wasn't his real name. My agent called the next morning and told me that I had lost the part I was offered in a new movie. My landlord called after that and told me that I had to move out; since the building had just been sold that morning. He said that I must have left the signature blank on the original lease, because he couldn't give me my security deposit back... I opened the ring box Jake had left. It was empty. I saw the ring with my own eyes. I even tried it on... and then it was gone." Martha looked to Kate with quiet desperation. "It can't be a coincidence... can it?"

Kate didn't know what to say.

"I saw him again, one week later." Martha whispered. "Gold said I could get my life back if I would 'be reasonable and pay the devil his due'. I told him to go to hell."

"What did he say?" Kate asked her quietly.

"He said... that nobody broke a deal with him... and there was more than one way to get one of my grandchildren out of me. He said if it wasn't going to be Alexis, there were other ways." She toasted Kate. "The next night was the book launch for Storm Fall. When you met Richard for the first time."

Kate felt a chill go up her spine convulsively. "I'll look into it."

"Please don't."

"Martha... if you're right about this man, then he's blackmailed, he's committed murder, he's attempted child abduction, bank fraud, and who knows what else. I _have_ to look into it."

* * *

Kate had the description, and began a search. The name had turned up no leads. Kate didn't put her team on it. It wasn't a homicide, at least not one in their jurisdiction. She didn't want to tip off Castle just yet, and there was a procedure to Cold Cases.

She went home that night; and juggled Chinese food with her keys, just like she had a thousand times before.

But tonight; something was different in her home. She came into the kitchen; tossed down her take-out, and retreated to the living room, where she noticed a book sitting on her coffee table. It was big and worn. A beautiful hardcover book of Fairy Tales with rich illuminated images that seemed to come alive.

Kate picked up the book curiously. It was clearly the one Martha had described in her story, but how it had shown up in her apartment was anyone's guess. One page had been bookmarked and Kate flipped through to it. "Rumpelstiltskin." She read the title of the bookmarked story to herself.

"Can't judge a book by it's cover." A voice sliced into her from the couch. Beckett dropped the book and spun smoothly on her heels; her gun drawn and aimed in less time than it took to register the movement. Sitting on her couch was a man in a long black coat; with wavy oily hair, a long silver cane, and a pair of dark sunglasses. "But with a title like that? You can be sure it's a page turner."

"Who the hell are you?" Kate demanded. She was certain he wasn't sitting there when she came in.

"Now is that any way to treat a guest, Detective?" The stranger grinned.

"To be a guest, I have to invite you in." She countered. "The law is quite specific on that point."

"Ahh, but you've been looking for me all day. I assumed an invitation would be coming sooner or later." He shot back, with just a trace of an Irish accent coming through.

Kate blinked, but didn't shift her aim. "Mister Gold?"

"At your service." He somehow managed to bow elaborately without shifting from his seat on her couch. "You have a question?"

"...yes." Kate conceded. "I want to talk to you about a deal you made with Martha Rogers."

"All deals are confidential. But I will say that Martha got what she wanted. A career, someone to take her in when her looks couldn't carry her any more..."

"You cleaned her out and made her afraid of shadows for forty years." Kate shot back.

Gold gave her nothing. "If you say so. I can neither confirm nor deny. But I will say that Martha doesn't scare easily, and that if you were worried... you might be able to pay off her tab."

"And give you Alexis? Like hell." Beckett glared. "And just remember; I'm not some scared bystander here. You get shot by a cop; and you're in a world of hurt."

"No doubt." Gold didn't seem worried. "But if you'd rather... take over her arrangement, you should know that others have made me that offer before; and I've been agreeable."

"No deal. Martha's willing to let you have her life's savings. Alexis means more."

"But there is something **you** want." Gold challenged. "Your mother's case for instance?"

The gun in Kate's hand cocked at the mention of her mother. "What about it?"

"You already solved it." Gold said matter of factly. "But you can't act to arrest the Dragon. Yet." He seemed amused. "Dragons can be such tricky things, can't they?"

Kate shook her head, and did a little dance around the truth herself. "I... have no idea what you're talking about. But if you were right and I had knowledge of my mother's murder... I would say that I can get there without asking for favors."

"Ahh, but there is something you want _more_ than justice." Gold said coolly. "You don't ask; because you think it's impossible. You think that Martha was the victim of a conman who made her believe in dark magic. But if there _was_ such power in the universe... or any other universe... what would you wish for?"

"Nothing." Kate said swiftly.

"Nothing?" Gold challenged.

"Not with a price-tag like the one you charged Martha." Kate snarled. "There's nothing you can offer me that I'd take from you."

"What about your mother back?" Gold offered. "Safe and well, and oh so very _alive_?"

Kate's gun wavered, just the tiniest bit. "I don't believe in Magic." She said seriously. "And I don't believe you do either. In fact, I think you're full of it."

"But if I _could_ make it happen?" Gold tempted; taking the sunglasses off to flash bright yellow cats-eyes at Beckett. "Would that be _worth_ something to you, Detective?"

* * *

**AN**: _And we're off. I'm not sure if Martha's con man beau was an ex-boyfriend or ex-husband, but either way, here it is. Read and Review_


	2. Needful Things

**AN**: _To those who wonder where in the continuity of UAT this is, the short answer is that it isn't. I had the idea that after the OUAT series ended, (I mean the __complete__ series, even the episodes we haven't seen yet) then the characters would be looking for something to do. This story isn't __outside__ the OAUT timeline, it's __beyond__ it._

* * *

A call at one in the morning was nothing unusual for the NYPD. They didn't enjoy it, but they obeyed without question, because it was the job.

So when Ryan and Esposito got the call, they were on their way to the cemetery immediately; expecting to find a body, and a crime scene waiting.

* * *

Lainie yawned. "You know." She said lightly as she came into the 12th Precinct's Morgue. "Perlmatter's on rotation tonight, I could have had plans. Really fun plans."

"I woke you. You were asleep. Any plans you had for the night were done." Beckett said flatly, no emotion in her voice at all. "I have two sets of prints here. I need you to compare them."

Lainie woke up enough to see her best friend was standing as still as a statue. "What's wrong?"

"Kind of everything." Beckett said.

"Kate if-"

"Conversation isn't work. I need you to work fast." She pushed over a set of properly dusted prints, and a police file. "I need you to compare these prints to the one in the file and make sure they match. Then I need you to go to the Archive room and find the other copy of the same file and compare them all. If somebody faked this, I'm gonna start killing people."

Lainie jumped. Beckett was back in Crusade mode. The only time she got this bad was when... "I'll get right on it." She said politely.

Beckett turned on one spike heel and marched for the door like all the demons of hell was keeping pace with her. "Call me when you get it."

* * *

"Remind me again, what's going on here." Ryan said quietly, his voice oddly thin.

"I need your help with something." Beckett said coldly. She had arrived at the Cemetery less than a minute after her two partners did.

"Where's Castle?" Esposito asked.

"We're not telling him about this yet." Beckett said simply, leading the way to the Custodian's Maintenance Shed. When she reached the small shed, she reared back and kicked the thin wooden door in.

"What are you doing?" Esposito demanded. "Where's Castle?"

"I got a better question." Ryan raised his hand like he was in school. "Where's the crime scene?"

Beckett ignored them both, and pulled out a pair of shovels from the shed, pushing one each at her crew. "This way." She said, cold enough that they both shivered violently.

"What the hell is this, bro?" Javier asked Ryan quietly, as they tried to keep pace with her determined stride.

"I have no idea, man." Ryan whispered back. "But there's only one thing that gets her in this kind of mood."

"Her mom's case?" Esposito looked back to the car. "Beckett? Is there someone else in your car?"

"None of your business!" Beckett almost bit his head off. "Come ON!"

They did so, but Ryan looked back to the street himself, and found Esposito was right. There was indeed someone sitting in Beckett's car, waiting in the passenger seat. In the dark, there was no way to know who it was.

Beckett stopped her march so suddenly, that they almost collided with her. "This is it." Beckett told them, arms folded. "Start digging."

She had led the two of them to a gravestone, and both detectives froze at the sight of the name.

* * *

**Here Lies, Joanna Beckett.**

* * *

"Kate, what the hell is going on?" Javier demanded, though his tone was gentle.

"Dig." Beckett told him, cold as death.

Trading a completely freaked out look, her most trusted partners did so.

* * *

Lainie had barely finished her assignment from Kate when her pager had buzzed. She returned the call to Kate. "Sweetie, I got good news. Every sample you gave me was a match." She paused, fishing for details. "Is that good news, or bad news?"

Beckett ignored the question. "What about the Archived samples?"

"Just on my way to get them."

"No. Don't bother. He only gave me 24 hours to decide." Beckett told her.

"To decide what?" Lainie was confused. "Girl, you're not making sense."

"I know." Kate didn't seem worried. "I need you to meet us at my place, right now."

"Who's 'we'?" The ME asked quickly.

"Me, Ryan and Espo. There's someone I need you to meet before we talk to Castle."

"Kate, where are you right now?" Lainie asked, curious.

"We're at my mom's grave." Beckett said tightly. "It's empty."

Lainie was about to scream something impolite when Beckett disconnected without another word.

* * *

It was the middle of the night, and Castle was the only one still awake. He was typing rapidly at his keyboard, in a zone that only professional writers could understand, when the house phone started ringing. He ignored it.

The phone rang nine times, before whoever was calling gave up.

Richard didn't even slow down his typing, when the cell phone rang on his desk. He glanced over. The screen said it was Beckett. With a sigh, he hit the speaker. "Hold on." He told her, by way of greeting; still hammering at the keys. "Gotta finish a thought here..."

"Is Alexis at home?" Beckett demanded.

Richard's fingers froze on the keyboard. "No, she's at Columbia tonight." He said carefully.

"When did you last hear from her?"

It was such a 'cop' question that Castle was up on his feet instantly, the phone to his ear. "What happened?" He hissed.

"Long story, just... can you make sure she's okay and call me right back?"

"I can do better than that." Castle told her, tapping at his computer. "After she got kidnapped, I set her up with a security system. A webcam and a panic button. She has two, one on her keychain, one by her bed. She presses it, and an alarm sounds here, and at Campus Security or the nearest police station, whichever is closer... and She gave me the password to check... on..." He tapped a few more keys, and Alexis' webcam displayed the feed on his screen.

Alexis was asleep in bed. He watched her breathing for a moment, and relaxed. "She's fine." He told Beckett. "The webcam on her computer? I can see her right now, she's fine."

"Good." Kate let out a breath explosively. "That's good. Can I come over? There's someone I want you to meet."

Castle checked his watch. "Yeah, if it's urgent."

"It kinda is. I'm... actually outside your front door right now."

Castle went downstairs and opened the door. She was there, and standing right behind her, looking vaguely unsettled...

Castle nearly fell over.

Kate stepped in and made introductions. "Richard Castle, I want you to meet Joanna Beckett. My mother."

* * *

It was impossible for two police officers to monitor the ins and outs of a University Campus the size of Columbia U. Ryan and Esposito were parked out the front of the Main Entrance, waiting for Alexis to start her morning, as the sun rose.

"Listen, just between us..." Ryan asked finally. "You buying any of this?"

"What? A Fairy Tale Leprechaun came outta nowhere and resurrected Beckett's mom from the dead?" Javier said blandly. "Why... _Of course_ I believe it." He rolled his neck a little, glancing at his partner. "Why? You don't?"

"Of course I do." Ryan said instantly, equally dramatic. "Every word. I mean, it's so obvious."

They looked at each other a moment, and burst into hysterical laughter.

Javier got it under control first and rubbed his eyes. "God. Remember that case a few years ago... We pranked Castle into thinking he'd been cursed by The Mummy?"

Ryan giggled a bit. "Man, the look on his face. Yeah, I remember."

"Captain Montgomery chewed us both out over mocking 'The Curse'." Javier explained. "He didn't believe in curses either, but he told us..."

They both finished the sentence together. "There's no upside in screwing around with things you don't understand."

"I remember." Ryan nodded.

Esposito shrugged, like that should explain everything. "Every episode of Scooby-Doo, the monster turned out to be a property developer in a costume. Every case we work, Castle's the one saying it was Aliens, or CIA, or robots from the future, but Beckett's the skeptic. If she's a believer on this one, then it means something. I don't know for sure who that woman we met last night is, but Lainie says she's got Joanna Beckett's teeth, fingerprints, face, voice and by the time she gets back to us, I'd lay odds she'll have Joanna Beckett's DNA too."

Ryan shivered violently. "What does that _mean_?" He hissed, feeling all the laws of reality turn to smoke around him.

"It means we watch Alexis Castle like hawks." Esposito said firmly. "It means we back Beckett in whatever she's got going on, it means we kill anyone who tries to hurt that family, because they're our family too. And above all, it means we play this one straight, _because_..."

They both finished the sentence together. "Because there's no upside in screwing around with things you don't understand."

Ryan's phone rang, and despite themselves, they both jumped. Feeling foolish, Ryan answered it. "Hello?" He listened for a few moments, then turned to his partner. "Castle says she's up and in the Cafeteria, having breakfast. He says he's spoken to her, and she's waiting for us to give her a ride back to his place."

"I'll go. Stay with the car, keep an eye out." Javier volunteered and got out of the car, heading into Columbia University.

Aside for the decorating and a little of the architecture, one school was much like any other. Corridors that filled with kids one minute, were mostly empty the next. Esposito read an evacuation map and headed toward the cafeteria... when he noticed how quiet it was. There was nobody. No faculty, no students, nothing. There was no sound of voices in any of the classrooms, or coming from outside.

Esposito had been a cop for years, a soldier before that. His instincts had kept him alive, and now his instincts were screaming that something weird was going on. He went to the nearest classroom and peeked inside. It was locked. He went to the next one and found that it was locked too. He peeked in through the glass panel. The room was empty.

Esposito checked his watch. At this time of day, the classrooms should all be open and getting ready for the morning...

And still it was dead silent.

Esposito checked the map on the wall and went up one flight of stairs to check Alexis' dorm room.

When he reached the next flight up, he checked... and noticed the window. He was still on the ground floor. He could see the path outside.

Esposito set his jaw and went up the stairs again; and then up another level, pointedly not looking at the windows. When he reached the third level, he looked out the window...

And saw he was still at the same spot he'd been when he started climbing stairs. The window showed the exact same view.

Freaked, Esposito backed away from the stairs.

And still, there hadn't been any sign of anyone.

Esposito went back to the Main Entrance, which had been full of people when he'd come in...

...and it was empty too. The doors were shut and locked.

Esposito pulled out his phone, and scrolled through his contacts for Ryan. "Hello?"

"Ryan, it's me. There's something weird going on in here."

"You think so, Javi?" Kevin responded. "Maybe you're just insane."

Esposito blinked. "What?"

"Well think about it, a man who climbs an endless flight of stairs and goes nowhere? He's either stupid, or insane. You're not stupid, are you Javi?"

It sounded like Ryan, but it wasn't him. Esposito looked at his phone for a moment. "Who is this?"

"Look to your left." Ryan said brightly.

Javier looked. There was a man in a long back coat, and oily hair making his way down the hallway. He was heading for a door. One of the ones Esposito had tried. But when he reached it, it opened before he even touched the handle.

Esposito took off running instantly. He caught the door just before it closed, and yanked it open, diving through.

He had looked through the glass panel a minute before, and it was an empty classroom. But as he exploded through the door, he was back on the front steps of the University.

And there before him, was the infamous Mister Gold.

With a crocodile smile, he stuck a hand out. "Pleased to meet you Detective Esposito." He grinned. "Hope you guessed my name."

Javier made no move to shake his hand.

Gold sighed. "Young people. No respect for the rules of chivalry. After all the effort I went through to make sure we could speak privately."

Javier wasn't sure what his gun would do, but he kept his hand on his holster anyway. "You're not getting Alexis."

"So I keep hearing." Gold bared his teeth. "You think you could stop me?"

Javier could see for a fair distance in several directions, and in the middle of the morning, there wasn't another living soul in sight. "If it was that simple, you would have done it already. Don't underestimate Castle and Beckett."

"I've faced teams like that before. Choking on nobility, eager to save strangers..." His voice went a little distant. "...armed with the most powerful magic of all, when they put their heads together." He shook his head a little, focusing. "So no, I don't underestimate anything about Team Caskett. But you don't break a chain by pulling, you focus on the weak link."

"Yeah? And what or who would that be?" Javier demanded.

Silence.

Gold rolled his eyes. "Just wait, it'll come to you."

Javier bared his teeth. "Me? I've been called a lot of things by a lot of evil people, Gold. 'Weak' has never been one of them."

"Everyone has his price, Javier." Gold commented. "For example... Kevin Ryan?"

Esposito had his gun drawn and pointed instantly. "You stay the hell away from my partner."

"But Ryan's not your partner, is he? Kate is your partner. Or at least... she _was_. Then you got handed some kid out of the gang department. Couldn't even look at the messier corpses. Green as hell. Blushed when he interviewed the pimps and Kate put you in charge of looking after him."

Esposito snorted. "You think you can play me? Pick a better target than my best friend."

"He's your best friend?" Gold laughed, like that was a joke. "Since he got married? Is he still your best friend?"

"Yes."

"Is he?" Gold pressed. "He's got Jenny, Kate has Richard... and you? You go home alone."

Esposito said nothing.

"Why should Ryan be so happy?" Gold commented, with a jaded icy smile. "You had it all, didn't you? You had Lainie, you had a great job, you were doing good in the world... And then you lost it all. And Kevin Ryan got it. Your best friend to be sure, so obviously you're happy for him... But everything you wanted for your life, the kid you had to babysit got instead for himself."

Esposito was notably silent.

"Tell me you're not just a little bit jealous." Gold whispered like a snake. "Just a little? I won't tell. You were Kate's partner. Then Ryan came along and you were just a member of her team. Then Castle came along and both of you got demoted from partners to lackeys. Ryan took to that, because he never wanted more. Then Writer-Boy gets Kate's total devotion after just a few months, after you claw that respect out of the Department for ten years... Loyalty, Javier. Loyalty is everything to you. And what did Castle, or Lainie, or Ryan or even Beckett give you that was equal to the loyalty you showed them?"

Esposito was notably silent.

"Tell me that deep down, at the darkest time of the night, in your cold empty bed, when your most unworthy thoughts wouldn't let you sleep..." Gold was merciless. "Tell me that just for an instant, you didn't want to set things right? To make it _**fair**_?"

Javier was weakening, gun wavering.

"If I could make that happen, Javier..." Gold tempted. "Would that be _worth_ something to you?"

Long silence.

Esposito suddenly tossed his gun away and howled, lunging for Gold. He tacked the man into the wall behind him and went berserk, raining punches down on Gold. One savage punch after another, right between the yellow cats-eyes, the hooked nose, the maddening grin. He kept punching till his knuckles split open.

And Gold started laughing at him. The giggle was nails on a chalkboard.

"Detective Esposito?"

Javier looked up sharply at Alexis Castle, looking down at him from the stairs in open shock. Several other young men and women were also staring at him, a little freaked out.

Esposito looked down. Gold was gone. Javier's fist was a bloody mess, as though he'd been punching the concrete itself.

Awkwardly, Javier rose to his feet. Alexis came down the stairs, looking embarrassed that she had witnessed the scene. "Dad called in... He said that he wanted me to come home urgently for something, and that... are you okay?"

Esposito shivered. "Fine. Just fine."

The young woman stared at him for a moment, and bent down to pick up his gun. "Um... you shouldn't leave this lying around."

Esposito quickly took it back and holstered it. "Right. Come on, we've got a car waiting for us."

* * *

Alexis came into the apartment, with Ryan and Esposito flanking her. She found Beckett in the kitchen. "Morning Detective." She waved. Kate was fast becoming a regular at the Castle Breakfast table. "I had to skip breakfast, have you... eaten..."

Then she looked again. Beckett was dressed like she'd just come from work. Her jacket had been swept around to keep her holster in easy reach, the badge right next to it. Beckett was expecting a gunfight any second. "Detective? What's wrong?" She heard a noise and turned away from Beckett to the living space, where Ryan, Esposito and Lainie Parish were all assembled. Esposito was trying to smile at her, but it didn't quite seem to take. Lainie was looking at her with open sympathy.

Alexis felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

"Alexis." Her father called from his office. "Would you join us in here, please?"

Kate gave the girl a nod. "Go ahead. We'll be right here. We'll speak soon."

Alexis went into her father's office, and found the family assembled. Her father was behind his desk, her grandmother sitting on the couch. Martha's eyes were red.

Alexis was quietly freaking out. "What's going on?"

"Sit down Sweetie, we have something to tell you." Martha patted the couch beside her.

* * *

Ryan rubbed the back of his neck. "This is freaking me out."

"I'm shaking in my stylish and affordable boots." Lainie nodded seriously.

Esposito toasted and slugged back his drink.

Ryan glanced over at Beckett. "At some point, one of us has got to tell Gates."

Beckett was halfway across the apartment, but she whirled as if shot. "Don't tell Gates! Nobody talks to Gates about this!"

"She came back from the freakin' grave, Beckett." Esposito argued. "I know, because I dug up the coffin to check."

"The minute we tell Gates, she takes this off us." Beckett snarled. "At best, I'll lose this case. At worst, I'll never see my mom again. Don't tell Gates."

"What case? How is this a case?" Ryan argued. "We're homicide. This is the exact _opposite_ of a homicide!"

Esposito reached out and grabbed Ryan by the scruff of the neck. "Don't. Tell. Gates. The less people that know about this, the better. One thing I learned from my grandmother's stories: Never tell an Imp your name. She said that names have power. Especially for Rumple... for this one in particular."

Ryan felt his jaw drop. "You're not saying you believe that?"

The door to the office opened and Team Castle filed out, Alexis in the lead. She looked across the assorted police officers and went to Lainie. "Doctor Parish, I'm not going to believe it unless I hear it from you. Level with me."

"I don't know about this Gold guy, sweetie." Lainie broke it to her gently. "But... I ran all the tests myself. I got the control group of Beckett's collection of her mothers things. They all came back as a match."

"Detective." Alexis said quietly, turning to Beckett. "It's not the fairy tales I grew up with, but if my dad was writing the story of Prince Charming and Snow White, there'd be a grisly murder or three in it. Tell me the truth."

"I'm afraid it's all true. Gold gave me 24 hours with my mom, and at midnight, I have to choose." Kate took a few steps toward Alexis, and the girl shied back a bit, taking a step back. At the same time, Castle stepped in closer, almost standing between his daughter and his girlfriend.

Kate looked up at Castle and her jaw dropped. Alexis was _afraid_ of her, and Castle was keeping Kate out of reach. "...Rick?"

Castle's face was unreadable. "Beckett, there's an easy way to prove it."

Realization struck her suddenly, and her own face turned to stone. Something electric passed between the two lovers, and Beckett stalked off to Castle's bedroom without a word.

Castle wasn't going to let his girlfriend get within reach of his daughter... for at least 24 hours.

* * *

Joanna Beckett had been waiting for the right moment to introduce herself. Her daughter had filled her in on a few details. Castle had filled in a few more.

Richard Castle had books all over his home; the two main collections were in his office, and in his bedroom. He had copies of all his own books in each.

When Kate came in, Joanna had a copy of Heat Wave in her hands, reading he dedication. "Nikki Heat?" Joanna said from the bookshelf. "You don't think that's... Well, a stripper name?"

"Hah!" Beckett commented.

"_Naked_ Heat?" Joanna had found the second book. "Katie, how have you not shown him the door by now?"

"I was under a direct order from the Mayor's Office to play nice." Kate chuckled.

Joanna turned from the bookshelf to the bed, and noticed something. A moment later she drew a pair of women's underwear from under the pillow. "Play _how_ nice, exactly?"

Beckett flushed red as a tomato. _I wondered where they went._ "Alexis has been informed. You ready to meet the rest of the team?"

Joanna smiled a bit. "My daughter has a team. Wow. Lead the way."

* * *

Introductions were made, and those that didn't have the whole story were quickly informed. Nobody knew what Gold was exactly, but they were still police, and they knew they had to protect the innocent.

"Martha will need protection too." Kate announced. "Gold first demonstrated an interest in Alexis through his deal with her."

Everyone glanced at Martha, who nodded. "He made it clear. My lifestyle or my grandchild."

Beckett twitched hard. "Right. And then he offered to let me take over the deal. Martha's grandchild or my mom. If we're going to save both, we need to keep all our bases covered."

While Beckett went over the details of protecting Alexis with her team, Joanna sidled up to Castle. "I think it's time you and I had a personal chat." Joanna said to him quietly.

* * *

They went into Castle's Office. Joanna opened the conversation as soon as he shut the door behind them.

"First of all, my daughter is suddenly old enough to be my twin. New York seems to have gotten a lot taller; and everyone seems to think I'm dead."

"Seems to think?" Castle repeated.

Joanna looked down. "I remember the Alley. I remember being stabbed. I remember... dying. Then, quite suddenly, I'm outside an apartment door, and my daughter is on the other side of it when I knock."

"A really big night for you two, I'll admit." Castle commented. "But why talk to me?"

"Two reasons." Joanna explained, laying it out like a lawyer would. "One: When Katie saw me, the first person she mentioned was you. She woke up her friends, her partners... And once she was convinced I really existed, she brought me here. She hasn't even told her father yet, but she brings me to meet you? That's a pretty clear indication of things. And two... You're the only one that seems unhappy to see me."

Castle sighed. "I am overjoyed to meet you. I am overjoyed for Kate. But... You were busy being... dead, for the last fifteen years. Losing you set Beckett on a Crusade. I've been on her side, _and_ in her way, whenever your name gets spoken, and it doesn't end well. And now... She's got something better than a chance for vengeance. She's got you. And the stated price is my daughter."

"Katie would never do that." Joanna said instantly.

Castle said nothing.

"I'm serious Mister Castle, she would never... She wouldn't." Joanna insisted.

Castle said nothing.

Joanna was horrified. "_Would_ she do that?"

"I don't know, but I know she considered it."

Joanna looked at him with her jaw hanging open. "No, surely not."

Without a word, Castle reached out and turned on he screen. The 'Mind Map' of Joanna Beckett's case lit up the screen. It was all there. Crime Scene Photos, Bracken's picture, Kate getting shot...

"My God..." Joanna whispered.

"There's a fifteen year gap in your knowledge on the subject Mrs Beckett. And that gap starts with you being dead in an alley."

Joanna shivered hard. "What did... What did it turn my daughter into?"

Castle sighed. "A brilliant, beautiful, frustrating, daring, wonderful, infuriating cop... Who is totally dedicated to making sure that total strangers never once have to go through what she did."

Joanna's eyes were shining. One lone tear made it past her eyes and rolled down her cheek.

"And I'm in love with her." Castle said with a sigh. "And there is nothing I can do that will make her half as happy as having you back is sure to do... And I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that this genuine miracle lasts only 24 hours." He looked a million years older. "And I'm sorry Joanna, I'm really so very sorry... But to save my daughter, I have to make sure you go back to The Other Side."

* * *

"So that's the whole situation." Beckett finished. "Whatever else, whatever happens, we are all in agreement? Gold doesn't get Alexis."

"Right." Everyone agreed... except Javier. Esposito was notably silent on the end of the couch.

"Espo?" Kate blurted in shock.

Esposito chewed his lip. "I'd take a bullet before I let anything happen to that kid, or to any of you; you know that." He said carefully. "But... you had us watching Alexis today? And for what? Because if Gold decides to just take her away... you think anything we've got can stop him? I'm not so sure."

"Don't tell me you're scared of the boogeyman now." Lainie commented in jaded awe.

"You're not?" Esposito challenged her. "Kate, when I was a kid, I got sent a chain letter. I threw it away, and my grandmother almost threw me out of the house. She was freaked out about curses and bad omens... She told me over and over, there was no ignoring it; all you could do was make it someone else's problem. I hate this bastard, but what if the only way to get rid of him is to make him someone else's problem?"

"Someone like Alexis?" A voice said tiredly.

Everyone turned and found Joanna Beckett in the doorway.

"Mom, you shouldn't-" Beckett started to stammer.

Joanna held up a hand. "Katie, can we speak privately for a moment?"

Kate nodded, shoulders hunched like a twelve year old that was caught doing something wrong.

* * *

Kate followed her mother into the office and started to speak. "Mom, before you go and-"

"Sit." Her mother said simply.

Kate sat down instantly.

Joanna perched on the edge of the desk and took a breath. "Katie, did you want to become a lawyer because I was one?"

"No Ma'am." Kate said immediately.

"Are you sure? Because you became a cop because of me." Joanna pointed out.

Kate looked down. "I had to."

Joanna sighed. "Do you remember when you were young; and you had to do your homework? We'd pull an essay question out of a hat, and debate it back and forth. You were beating me by the time you were eleven; so I had to put a stopwatch on you just to keep up."

Kate smiled. "I remember. My teachers hated when I had essay questions. I kept fighting them on the answers."

Joanna smiled. "My baby girl, the only one in class that could fight the teachers and win." She let the smile fall. "Today's topic: What are you thinking?"

Kate blinked. "I don't understand?"

"You've got a family of people in there, and all of them are half expecting you to toss that teenage girl under a bus. I don't know Alexis, but I think that Richard Castle adores her every bit as much as I adore you."

Kate nodded dutifully. "He does."

"And he clearly worships you."

Kate bit her lip. "You never liked any of my boyfriends."

"You dated idiots." Joanna said without missing a beat. "There's a row of bestsellers on that shelf that suggest this one might have something to him." Her gaze hardened. "So why were you seriously considering handing over his daughter?"

"I wasn't!" Kate insisted. "I wouldn't do that."

"Then why do the people who know you best think you might?" Joanna pounced. "And before you try to come up with an answer?" She turned the screen back on, revealing Castle's Mind Map of the case.

Kate looked down. "Gold didn't ask for Alexis."

"No?"

Kate squeezed her eyes shut. "He was specific. He wanted Martha's grandchild."

Joanna blinked. "Well, does Richard have any brothers or... sisters..." She trailed off and looked at her daughter carefully again. "Oh my god."

Kate rested a hand over her stomach. "I only found out a week ago." She whispered. "It's... It's not like when I was a kid mom, the world's changed while you were away. Single mothers are... well, everywhere now."

"That matters less to me." Joanna said carefully. "He doesn't know, does he?"

Kate shook her head.

"Are you _going_ to tell him?"

Kate nodded her head.

"You said that Gold's choice of words was specific. Me, or Martha's grandchild. Now there are two of those he can choose from."

Kate nodded her head.

"Kate..." Joanna said tightly. "If you even _consider_ handing over that girl out there, or my grandkid growing inside you, just to bring me back? Then I don't even _want_ to know you."

Kate shook her head, tears forming.

"Say something." Joanna directed.

"I miss you." Kate said finally. "We all fell apart when you died. Dad crawled into a bottle of scotch and didn't come out for years. I quit school and became a cop... There was a you-sized hole in the world, and everything that was good in our lives went away when you were gone."

Joanna reached out and cupped her daughter' chin. "Throwing away everything that might possibly make you happy would not have brought me back. And now that I am back, it doesn't make everything better again. Kate... If I only have a day to live, let me do this one pure thing with it. Let me save my grandkids."

"He knows that I thought about it. I never would have done it, but he knows that I thought about it." Beckett wept. "He'll never trust me again. He's gonna hate me. And then he'll find out about the baby and he'll do the right thing and he'll be stuck with a woman he can't trust and doesn't love any more."

Joanna came forward and hugged her daughter tightly. "When your grandmother died?" She said softly. "I would have given anything to see her again for one day."

Kate hugged her tighter. "There's gotta be a way to have both."

Joanna leaned back enough to look her in the eyes. "Third most important lesson I ever taught you?"

Kate sniffed. "Can't always get what you want, but if you try, you might get what you need." She smiled. "I was fourteen before I realized it was a lyric from a Rolling Stones song."

Joanna laughed. "Young people. No appreciation for good music."

"You think that was true fifteen years ago? You have no idea."

Joanna smiled. "We've got today, we've got tonight, and we've got two kids with rich full lives ahead of them. I'd call that a victory, if I were you."

"I'm a homicide cop. Rich full lives ahead of people is better than it usually gets." Kate sighed, and scrubbed her face with her hands. "Okay. We better get back in there."

* * *

Everyone fell silent when the two of them returned to the living room. Kate broke the silence. "If anyone has any ways to win this particular game that I haven't thought of? You've got..." She checked her watch. "Seventeen hours left to work a plan and make it happen."

Loud silence. Alexis bowed her head.

"Yeah." Beckett sighed. "That's what I figured."

"Seventeen hours?" Joanna repeated, checking her watch. "Katie, my dear... I think it's time we called your father."

"There's a reunion scene begging to be written." Castle said under his breath.

"What the hell do we tell him?" Kate asked helplessly.

"You told us." Ryan offered.

"You weren't married to her." Esposito shushed him.

Beckett had pulled out her phone. "Dad?" She said, her voice suddenly high and squeaky. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Dad, are you sitting down? I got something to tell you. Are you at home right now?" She listened. "Okay. I'm going to come over... and I'm bringing one hell of a surprise."

It was clear their little meeting was coming to an end. Everyone rose to their feet, Alexis looked around, wondering what to do, and found Ryan and Esposito taking position on either side of her.

Beckett gave marching orders quickly. "Guys, stick with Alexis. Mom, we're going home; but you'll need to let me prepare him. Lainie... Cover for us at the Precinct, and keep in touch with everyone. Castle... For now, stay with your daughter. I'll be back as soon as I get mom and dad sorted out."

Everyone nodded.

Joanna broke the 'war room' feel of the moment. "It was nice meeting you all."

Beckett led them out and Castle closed the door behind them. A moment later, there was a rapid knock on the door. Castle didn't even have the time to step away from the door, and he opened it again. Beckett was standing there, in a total panic. "Come with me?"

Alexis had already brought her father his jacket.

* * *

Jim Beckett didn't say a word the entire time. He barely seemed to be listening. His face never changed as Beckett explained the situation. He didn't react as Castle picked up the story and told him the background.

Kate and Rick had suddenly run out of words. Jim Beckett didn't say a word for a full two minutes. When he did speak, his words were directed at Castle. "Richard? The cabinet on your left."

Castle reached over without standing up. In the cabinet, at the back... was a bottle of gin, half empty. There was a line drawn on the glass in marker pen, exactly at the line of the liquor within.

Kate saw the bottle and her face fell. "Aw, Dad..."

Jim took the bottle and held it up. "I bought this bottle seven years ago. I still haven't finished it. I've been dry for seven years, two months and nine days. The whole time, I've had this here... and never touched it." He smirked at Kate. "It's a point of pride, that I could be an alcoholic, and not touch this." He set the bottle down. "Katie, if this turns out to be a very bad joke... I swear, I'll drain this whole thing dry without pausing to take a breath."

Beckett looked twelve years old again. "She's outside."

"Bring her in."

* * *

Jim Beckett looked twenty years younger when his wife stepped into the room. They met in a passionate kiss, and both Kate and Richard knew to leave them alone.

Kate was crying as they stepped into the next room. "I should never have brought her here." She hissed to Castle. "I never should have made him go through this again."

"You said yes." Castle offered. "You knew you'd have to go through this, but you took 24 hours. You brought her here for the same reason you took the offer. You wanted a chance to see her again, and say goodbye this time." His face froze. "Or... maybe you knew 24 hours wouldn't be enough time."

Beckett didn't like the implication, and changed the subject. "I have something to show you."

* * *

Downstairs at her car, Beckett opened the trunk and pulled out a rucksack with only one thing in it. "This is the book." Kate told him. "Martha told me about the book, and then when I came home, I found it there."

She handed it to him, and Castle turned to stone. It was a huge leatherbound book with illuminated writing and pictures that seemed to come alive. "I've seen that before..." He whispered, not aware he'd spoken.

Beckett pushed it into his hands. "Martha said that Gold gave it to you."

"Yes..." Castle said, a million miles away. "I only kept it for..." He squeezed his eyes shut.

"If you don't mind my saying..." Kate said carefully. "You took to this like a fish to water. You weren't surprised by any of it. Martha already told you?"

"Not exactly." Richard sighed. "I... I've met Gold."

"Yeah, Martha said you were a kid at the time."

"No. I met him again, five years ago. About a week before you and I met."

Kate was stunned. "Tell me."

Castle rolled his neck painfully. "I was halfway through Storm Fall, and I didn't have a clue how to end the damn thing. I was a year out of my second marriage..." He looked at Kate with haunted eyes. "Only a few authors keep churning things out every year, Kate. A lot of professional writers are at war with their own writersblock. Kerouac, King... They write half their stories from inside a scotch bottle. I had a daughter, I didn't want to do that."

Kate was stunned. "You were going to give it up. You were going to give up writing."

"I was." Castle nodded. "And then I came out into the kitchen, and sitting on the counter was this book. I recognized Gold, of course. The fact that he didn't seem a day older freaked me out... And then he offered me a deal."

Kate hardened. "What did he want?"

"Derrick Storm." Castle said simply. "The deal was, I had to kill off the character. I told Paula and Gina, and they both hit the roof. Paula vowed she'd never forgive me. Gina said point blank that I'd never find a publisher willing to put up with me again. Killing off my most popular series would have been a death blow to my career. Gina wanted me to get a ghostwriter to just keep writing the Storm books for me; and keep collecting the royalties. But I said no. That was my deal with Gold."

Kate took in a slow deep breath. "And what did he promise you?"

Richard gave her a sad, crooked smile. "He promised me... that I would find a Muse. A perfect one. A Muse that would make sure I never suffered from writersblock again. Someone that would not only inspire my books, but make my life something extraordinary, and..." He stopped real quick. "I wrote the ending to Storm Fall, and killed off the character like we agreed... and a few days later, mother called to tell me she was homeless... and a week after that, I met you."

Kate was floored. "How long has Gold been planning this?"

"A long time." Castle agreed. "He wanted Alexis, and he knew my mother would say no. He knew you'd give him Alexis if you got your mom in exchange, but he had to make sure you _met_ her first. He rooked us into meeting each other, Kate."

They sat quietly for a moment and Richard suddenly chuckled.

She waited for him to share the joke, but he didn't say anything.

"What are you thinking?" Kate asked finally.

Rick chewed his lip. "Rumpelstiltskin is a character out of a story. If story characters exist in some way, then maybe..." He couldn't help the silly smile. "How do I know where the line is? Oliver Twist? Peter Pan? Frankenstein?" He let the moment hang. "Derrick Storm? Nikki Heat?"

Beckett burst out laughing hysterically. "You think Nikki Heat is out there somewhere?"

Castle couldn't help but laugh along.

Beckett was smiling for the first time in what felt like days. "Ahh, I get it. You want to meet Nikki. She's your dream version of me, so obviously..."

Castle came closer and slid his arms around her waist. "I've already got my dream version of you. She's right here."

Kate softened and kissed him. An instant later she pulled back. "Hold on. I'm still mad at you."

"Why?"

"For thinking I'd take Alexis." She told him, not pulling away. "You thought I was going to do it this morning, and you just said that I'd do it just now."

Castle sighed and hugged her close for a moment, before stepping back to give them some space. "Your whole life became about your mother. You didn't care if they killed you, as long as you got six inches closer to avenging your mom. I know you want to protect the innocent Kate, but your mom is innocent too, and if you had to choose between your own mom and Mother Theresa, I think you'd choose your mom."

Beckett looked down. "I... I probably would." She conceded. "But there's them... and then there's your kid."

"You weren't tempted?" Castle dared her. "Just for a second, you weren't tempted?"

Kate looked at him. "Castle... If Meredith was standing here, would you be asking her that question?"

"Of course not."

Beckett nodded. "Castle... You've said, in some detail, how I'm more reliable than she is. The only difference when it comes to Alexis is biology. Rick... If I said that your family was mine now... would you believe that?"

Richard blinked rapidly. "Kate?"

She held up a hand. "That wasn't a proposal. But the reason things didn't work when you tried with Gina, was that you wouldn't let her into Team Castle. It's a very exclusive club, and it's hard to get into. Hell, Alexis didn't want her own mother to stay in New York..." Kate's phone rang, and she answered it. "Hello?" She listened for a moment. "Okay. I'm looking at my watch."

"Problem?" Castle asked her.

Kate disconnected. "Mom says to leave them alone for a few... Hours. We've got fifteen hours left, I'll give them eight."

"Eight hours?" Castle let out a low whistle.

"I'm anticipating every possible remark you can make and I find none of them amusing." Kate said sharply. "Those are my parents you're _not_ talking about."

Richard gave her a dirty smile and went back to the book. "So." He said finally. "Eight hours to kill."

Beckett sighed. "We might as well make an appearance at the Precinct."

Castle was still staring at the book. "I've got a better idea."

* * *

Alexis had spoken to her friends at College to make sure she'd have some notes from the classes she missed. She was ahead enough that she could vanish for a day from her dorm.

But she wasn't satisfied with sitting around while everyone in her life seemed geared for a war.

While Ryan and Esposito paced the boundaries of the Castle Home, Alexis went to work doing what she did best: Research.

"Have you ever read the book 'Needful Things' by Stephen King?" Alexis asked the room finally.

"Saw the movie." Ryan offered.

Alexis nodded. "Simple idea. A guy with some mystical power moves into a small town and sets up an antique shop. He gives each member of the town something they want and in return they grant him small favors. Within a week, he's played every member of the town against each other, playing old grudges and long standing rivalries, winding them up with petty annoyances until the entire town goes mad and starts wiping each other out."

"And you think that's what this Gold guy is?" Ryan guessed. "Some dark genie?"

"I don't know, but that's what Detective Esposito thinks." Alexis shot back.

Ryan looked at his partner, who looked straight back and gave a single nod, then returned his gaze to the window.

"So... what? How do you fight that?" Ryan asked.

Alexis shook her head. "Thing about mythology is, there are too many versions. What will kill a vampire in one story will be useless in the next. And we don't know what Gold is. In the stories I've found, a Djinn can do anything, as long as someone asks for it. You have to ask for something, but you won't like it when you get what you ask for. An evil Genie is the embodiment of the saying 'Be Careful What You Wish For'. That sounds like what we're dealing with."

There was a knock at the door, and both cops took positions between Alexis and the door.

A moment the door opened, and Kate leaned in. "It's us."

Everyone relaxed as Kate and Richard came in. Richard had the book under his arm.

"Report." Kate said first thing.

"Status Quo." Esposito reported. "Castle Jr is onto something."

Castle came over to his daughter. "Research?"

"A lot to choose from." Alexis reported. "Anything on your end? You know mythology better than I do."

Castle placed the book before her. "Page forty one."

Alexis looked it up. "Rumplesti-"

"AhAhAh!" Beckett cut her off. "I said the name out loud, and look where that got us."

"Right." Alexis stopped herself.

"But the picture? It looks exactly like Gold." Castle explained. "Think that means what we hope it means?"

Alexis flipped through the pages. "The ending isn't there. Someone tore the page out."

"I've checked. Someone tore the last page out of every story in the book. Snow White, Prince Charming, Red Riding Hood the Werewolf-"

"The what now?" Alexis flipped pages faster. "I don't remember that version."

"Me neither. My point is, someone tore the ending out of every story, like they didn't want us to know how any of their stories end."

Alexis looked up at him. "Gold is real... Maybe that means the others are out there somewhere?"

"We've been through that." Beckett told her. "And Rick, I swear, if you go looking for..." She trailed off suddenly.

Everyone looked over at her, but Beckett was staring darkly at the television. On the screen was a news update. The sound was off, but they didn't need it. They had everything they needed from the picture.

On the screen, with a big smile, was Congressman William Bracken.

The news had obligingly put up a caption.

**Congressman Bracken To Run For President.**

* * *

**AN**: _Read and Review!_


	3. Time's Up

**AN**: My thanks to everyone who reviewed. Believe it or not, I'm actually adding some scenes to the ending based on ideas you fine people have given me.

* * *

"One day is just not enough time." Jim sighed. "Are we sure he won't take anyone else? Anyone other than the kid?"

"Richard Castle is tearing up New York looking for an answer to that question right now." Joanna promised him. "Jim, if the answer is no... We still have today."

"I know." Jim nodded and kissed her again. "Don't underestimate Castle. Three Serial Killers, two Foreign Agents and two domestic terror cells have underestimated what happens when you put our daughter in a room with Richard Castle, and they all came to regret it."

"You think highly of him, don't you?" Joanna smiled.

"I don't know him as well as I should." Jim admitted. "But he is totally devoted to our girl, and he adores his family, and he can provide our girl with her own plane if she asked for one."

"What more can a father ask?" Joanna teased.

"Katie is always so secretive about her boyfriends."

"Really?" Joanna was surprised.

"Well, she is with me." Jim admitted. "With you she talked about everything. She was always her mother's daughter."

"She loves you." Joanna promised.

"Oh, I know that." Jim nodded. "But you were her favorite. Which is fine... because you're my favorite too."

Joanna smiled and snuggled tightly into her husband. "I couldn't believe it when I found out she was a cop."

"There was no dissuading her. Believe me, I tried." Jim agreed. "But she's a sensational cop. She's broken records. She's literally saved this whole city. To say nothing of the bad guys she's locked away."

"I'm not a bit surprised." Joanna said warmly. "Our daughter is blessed with inspiration. She was made for excellence."

"She is. She got that from you. In a way, it's also her worst drawback."

"What do you mean?" Joanna asked him.

"She's happy with Castle. I saw that the second I met him. But Kate hasn't done anything that's made her happy. Every time someone comes along and offers her personal happiness, she sabotages it." He sighed. "I could never snap her out of it. But she's got it into her head that since she's got all this amazing potential, she owes it to the world to use it for more than her own happiness. She won't let herself be content."

Joanna didn't seem pleased with that answer. "It's the parent's dilemma. You want your kid to do great things, but you don't want them to push themselves too far."

Jim nodded. "She keeps moving the finish line. First it was law school, then you died and it became about being a cop, then being the best, then solving your case, then about making detective, and then, and then, and then... It makes her exceptional. It also means that Castle could spend his life chasing after someone who'll never slow down enough to make him a priority. At least, not as much as she is to him."

"Was it like this with her other boyfriends?"

"Honors Students. Heart Surgeons. Detectives. Doctors Without Borders. Even millionaires and consulate staff. Since high school she's never dated anyone who isn't at least as exceptional as her. And she leaves them in the dust."

"Some would call that single-mindedness. But it could be she's just waiting for the good fit instead of a good resume." Joanna leaned into him a little closer. "She's smart enough to recognize a good thing. Give our daughter some credit."

"I always do. She's her mother's daughter after all." Jim kissed the top of her head again. "A day is just not enough time." He sighed.

"A day is all we have."

"Doesn't have to be."

She looked up at him, tensing a little. "Jim?"

Jim looked back evenly. "Don't count Team Caskett out just yet. You put those two together and things happen. I don't care who the Dark Imp is. Those two declare war on somebody, they find a way to win."

* * *

"President Bracken." Beckett said for the ninth time.

Castle pressed a glass into her hand. "It's Brandy. Drink."

Kate threw the drink back instantly. One gulp, glass down.

"Pres-i-dent Bracken..." Beckett repeated for the tenth time, like she was trying to put the two words together in any way that made sense.

"Wait. Detective, weren't you on bodyguard detail for him once? Did something happen?" Alexis raised a hand like she was in school. "Would somebody tell me who this guy is, and why everyone looks like they just ate bad eggs?"

"Don't ask." Four adults said at the same time.

"President. Bracken." Beckett repeated for the eleventh time, her voice getting angry. She cast about for a moment, eyes roving over everything...

"Here." Castle put a glass statuette in her hand. "It belonged to Meredith."

Beckett hurled the glass into the fireplace with a scream. It shattered with a loud and satisfying ring.

Everyone was notably silent.

Castle broke the silence finally. "Beckett, a nominee gets more scrutiny on his life than any thug that ever got into your interrogation room. Somebody will find something to sink him."

"Sure." Beckett scorned. "It's not like a crook ever got elected to high office before."

Heavy silence.

"Oh my god..." Kate whispered suddenly. "Oh My GAWHD!"

"Kate-"

Beckett spun around and snatched up the phone, dialing quickly.

"What are you doing?" Castle asked her.

"I've got the Silver Bullet!" Kate almost screamed, suddenly filled with a deadly, dynamic energy. "I've got the ultimate Anti-Bracken gun."

"Your mom?" Esposito breathed.

"We've got evidence, we've got details, we've even got the money trail. The only thing we need is an eyewitness they can't get to." Beckett grinned, phone to her ear. "And my mom? They won't see this coming with a crystal ball and a map."

"Kate, there's a _reason_ for that!" Castle tried to get across to her. "You've only got twelve hours left."

"Twelve hours?" Beckett exulted. "Long enough to get a warrant together."

"Not long enough to get a trial together." Ryan put in.

Kate looked at the phone in her hand, annoyed. "Busy signal."

"Are you surprised?" Castle asked her lightly. "I wouldn't leave the phone on the hook either."

Ryan and Esposito smirked, and Kate pointed darkly at both of them. "You are both to erase that image from your minds! ERASE!"

"Twenty four hours is not enough time." Ryan put in. "Not enough time to get your mom on the stand. Not long enough to sort out the paperwork you need to bring her back from the dead."

Kate's eyes flicked to Alexis automatically, and Castle turned to stone again. The moment passed instantly, but just for a millisecond, she had considered getting more time, and everyone had seen it.

"No, you're right. It wouldn't work." Kate said finally. "If we had a year, it wouldn't work; and we've only got a day. There was an autopsy, a death certificate, a funeral. I couldn't tell Gates six hours ago, and it's only gotten more complicated sin-" She was cut off as her phone started to ring. She answered it. "Beckett." Her shoulders straightened. "Yes Sir."

It was Gates. The others knew to leave her to it, and Alexis waved to get her father's attention. "Dad?" Alexis whispered. "I found something you might want to see."

Castle came over to the stand behind her at her laptop, and felt his jaw drop open. There on the screen was a picture of Gold. Alexis hefted the book upright and compared the picture in it to the one on screen. They were identical. "Is that him?"

"That's him. What site are you on?" Castle asked.

"It's called ." Alexis reported. "A lot of people putting their stories up. Most of them? Have a story like ours." She looked up at him, eyes wide. "Dad? About half the people on here took the deal... and a lot of the ones that did are very happy with what they got. Nobody has ever broken a deal with him. If they did, they didn't get to write about it online."

Castle squeezed her shoulder. "None of them were us. If there's a way, we'll find it. And if there isn't... Joanna Beckett's story ended years ago. Yours is still beginning."

Alexis looked sick. "I hate that we have to choose." She bit her lip. "Dad, we don't know what Gold wants me for. If it turns out to be not that bad... Could be that we could actually reunite Detective Beckett with her mother."

Castle was floored by the altruism of the suggestion, and was about to respond when Beckett came back in, disconnecting the call. "Okay." She said carefully. "The situation has become more complicated."

"How?" Ryan asked painfully.

She gave her team a tight smirk. "Someone noticed that my mom's grave has been dug up. Captain Gates just rang to break the news to me... that my mother's body is missing."

Esposito winced. "Knew we should have filled the grave back in when we were done."

Castle never took his eyes of Beckett. "What did you tell Gates?"

"What could I say?" Beckett waved. "I acted horrified, and demanded to investigate the matter myself." She shook her head. "The investigation isn't the problem."

"What **is** the problem?"

"What happens at midnight when my mom is... gone, again? Does her body reappear in the grave? Do we have to bury her ourselves?"

Nobody had an answer to that one.

"You people are all _ghouls_." Alexis put in.

"Ghouls." Esposito repeated to his partner. "That's a nice thing to call us grave-robbers."

Beckett returned to the point. "We have a far more important problem anyway. What do we do about Bracken? Maybe we can't do much in a day, but... We've got a chance that we'll never have again." She looked to Castle. "Rick, I need someone to write an ending that works. How do we get from here to Bracken in jail, with Alexis and my mom safe?"

Castle chewed his lip. "I don't know."

"Think harder." Kate told him simply. She was back in 'Crusade' mode.

Castle hesitated. "Kate, you've only got twelve hours. Do you want to spend them all chasing down the man who..." His eyes flicked to Alexis. "...you hate?"

Kate's gaze never wavered. "Come on Castle, it's what you do. Tell me a story."

_If she doesn't get one, she'll need more time until she comes up with one on her own._ Castle told himself.

He thought of Alexis.

The rest was easy.

"I don't know how to flip the deal." He told Kate finally. "But you can put Bracken in jail if you tie him to your mom's grave being dug up."

"How?" Kate demanded.

"You keep your mom's stuff in storage, right?"

"Right."

"Go trash it. All of it." Castle said simply. "Don't leave any trace that it was you, but make it look like your mom's things got ripped part. Then tell Gates that Bracken was desperate to find something among your mom's belongings. Something important enough that he would actually have the coffin searched."

"And then what?" Kate demanded, sensing victory.

"And then tell Gates you found the whatever-it-was first." Castle finished. "Make it something that wins the game in one move."

Silence.

Kate lunged forward and kissed him hungrily. A little too hungrily, given that his teenage daughter, and her two coworkers were all in the room. Ryan, Esposito and Alexis all found something more interesting to look at for ten seconds. Then twenty. Then thirty.

Ryan stared at his fingernails for a while, Alexis returned to her laptop, and Esposito looked back out the window.

Thirty five seconds. Forty seconds.

Finally Alexis could take no more. "Somebody get a bucket of icewater!"

They broke for air, and Kate was smiling like she'd won the lottery. "I love you. I know I don't say it as often as you do, but I love you."

Castle was still trying to get her breath back when she turned and swept out the door, gone before anyone could react.

"Castle, you're in love with a live grenade." Esposito commented. "You know that, right?"

"Okay. That's it." Alexis closed her laptop. "This little party stops until someone tells me who the hell Bracken is, and how you know him... And before you tell me it's none of my business, just remember that Detective Beckett was clearly ready to hand me over to a dark Djinn for a shot at bringing him down."

"A shot at Bracken _and_ her mom back." Esposito pointed out.

Castle glared. "What Javier meant to say was: No, of course not, Kate would never do that."

Ryan stepped forward quickly, putting a hand out. "Beckett said never to tell anyone."

"Alexis isn't anyone." Esposito countered. "And for a shot at Bracken, Beckett would rent a skywriter."

Castle agreed. "Okay." He said. "We tell her. While we do that; Ryan, run down this website." He was pointing at Alexis laptop. "Find out who's hosting it; get contact information."

Ryan took the laptop and pulled out his phone, heading into the next room. Esposito took up position to cover both the window and the door; and Castle sat down with his daughter.

"Years ago..." He said, slipping instantly into 'storyteller' mode. "...the Racketeers and Mobsters owned this town. Three cops, two experienced detectives and one rookie, decided to take on the mobs in their own way. They snatched high-ranking criminals, held them prisoner, and held them to enormous ransom."

"The only way to fight organized crime." Esposito put in. "Attack the money."

"One night, this tactic backfired, and people died." Castle continued. "The three vigilante cops handled it by pinning the whole disaster on some low-level scumbag that nobody cares about. He went to jail, the three cops all walked away, and they got away with it."

"More importantly, the uncounted millions of dollars they ripped off was taken by the DA, in exchange for looking the other way." Esposito put in. "That DA was William Bracken."

Alexis let out a low whistle.

"Hey; I'm telling this story. It's what I do." Castle told Esposito firmly. "That was the end of the story until years later, when the guy they framed managed to talk a Public Defender into representing him for an appeal. The lawyer in question... Was Joanna Beckett."

Alexis had her father's quick mind, and she put the pieces together. "So, Bracken takes that money, the three cops get away with it, and then Joanna Beckett starts digging, so she gets killed."

"So do the three cops. So do the hitmen that pull the triggers, so does everyone else that goes looking." Castle finished.

"Can you prove it?"

"We have a money trail."

"Why haven't you arrested him, then?" Alexis demanded.

Castle sent Esposito a look. The Detective shrugged, not happy.

"The third cop was Roy Montgomery." Castle said quietly. "He was told to bring Beckett in for execution, and instead he flipped on them, took out three bad guys."

"So you keep it quiet to keep your friends' name clean... And Beckett got shot anyway, at his funeral." Alexis rubbed her eyes. "'Just book research' you said. 'Just for a few weeks' you said."

"I know." Castle sighed.

Silence.

"So, what's Gold really doing?" Alexis demanded.

"I don't know." Castle confessed. "Maybe Bracken made a deal once too."

"What are you talking about?" Esposito demanded.

Castle turned to him. "We've got everything we need to lock Bracken up, except for a witness that can tie all our information together the way we need it. Joanna Beckett was about to make it happen when she got killed."

Alexis picked it up. "So what are the odds that we get Joanna Beckett back for a very specific 24 hours, just as Bracken launches a Presidential bid?"

Ryan had come back into the room, enough to catch that. "The resemblance between you two just became clear." He held out a post-it note to Castle. "The website is owned by some guy named Neal Cassidy. There's the address."

Castle snatched it. "He lives in Manhattan?"

Alexis was up instantly. "I'm going with you."

"No." Three adults said at the same instant.

Alexis sat back down. "Yeah, I didn't think you'd let me, but I had to try."

Castle pulled his jacket on. "You've only been under House Arrest for six hours; you can't be stir crazy yet."

"I had a date tonight." Alexis offered.

"More good news." Castle said brightly and headed for the door, waving over Ryan. "One thing before I forget." He said quietly to Ryan. "If the boyfriend _does _show up looking for her... shoot to kill."

Ryan nodded seriously and Castle took off.

* * *

Beckett had kept her eyes shut when she let herself into her dad's apartment, just in case; but she managed to explain the situation to her parents, in much the same way Castle had explained to his daughter.

"You've known who he was the whole time?" Jim was stunned.

"No, not the whole time." Kate promised him quickly. "We only just found out a few months ago... and we couldn't do anything about it. Not until this."

Joanna wasn't smiling. "Kate, I'm not wild about you covering up the crimes of a Police Captain. Your friend, sure. And with him killed, there was no point, but it's tied your hands and protected Bracken until now. His lies became your lies." Joanna looked sick. "And it got you a bullet in the heart for your trouble."

"I know." Beckett sighed. "But that's in the past. We've got a plan, and..."

"What do we need?" Jim asked immediately.

Joanna and Kate both looked at him, surprised at his eagerness.

Jim's eyes were as cold as his daughter's got whenever the subject of Joanna came up. "This is the man that caused the death of at least six people, one of them was my wife." He nodded at his daughter. "Hang'em high, Katie-Bear!"

Beckett grinned like a shark. "We'll have to move fast." She jumped up and headed for the door, not noticing her father's smile fade.

Joanna looked to her husband warmly. "What's wrong?"

"It's not enough time." He sighed. "One more day? Its just not enough time for... for everything."

Joanna softened and kissed his cheek. "Long enough to save a sweet girl, and punish the guilty. To say nothing of changing the face of a Presidential Run."

Jim held her tight. "I just wish there was a way to have both."

"Don't sell your daughters boyfriend short." Joanna offered. "He strikes me as the kind to get a lot done in one day when he's motivated enough."

* * *

Castle had no idea how Neal Cassidy could afford an apartment so close to Fifth Avenue, but it was fairly easy to get to. There was no name on the Apartment Buzzer, and no answer when he buzzed.

Castle chewed his lip, when his phone rang. "Hello?"

"Katherine just checked in." Martha reported. "Joanna's on board with Operation Beckett-Gate."

Castle snorted. "We've gotta have a better name for it than that."

"Best I could think of at short notice." Martha waved it off. "You still feeling good about the plan? You came up with it."

"It's a thin plan, mother. If I was writing it, I'd be rewriting it a dozen times. It's full of holes."

"Really? Katherine seems to think you can pull it off."

"Kate's got her blinders on again." Castle argued. "She's willing to try this, because it's the only thing that'll work, short of handing over Alexis to Gold."

"You really thought Katherine was going to take Alexis from us. My god." Martha murmured.

"I did. Just for a second, just for a moment when Kate came in, in my wildest nightmares, I thought she'd do it." Richard nodded helplessly. He glanced around the lobby of the apartment building, and lowered his voice. "I lied to Kate. I told her that Gold offered me a new Muse, to conquer the Writers Block I had after Gina took off."

Martha's voice became concerned. "What did he _really_ give you?"

Castle almost laughed when he said it out loud. "True Love."

"What?"

"I know, sounds silly. What can I say? I was a week out of my second divorce, you were living with your boyfriend..." He looked back to the book. "I read all these stories, when I was young. Love is the silver bullet in every one of them."

Martha's voice turned cold. "But you never really trusted it, did you? That's the thing about True Love. It has to go both ways, and you never really trusted hers was as strong as yours. Funny thing, trust. We give it so freely until we need it."

Castle froze. "Mother?"

"Has she ever once chosen anything over Avenging her mother?" Martha taunted.

Castle's gripped the phone tightly. "Who is this?"

Gold's giggle came through the phone.

"Is that what this is about?" Castle demanded. "You set Kate up to choose between her mother and my daughter?"

Gold giggled again. "You're a lucky man, Richard Castle. You get to find out once and for all how deep 'Twu Wuv' runs in their significant others." Gold actually sounded reflective for a moment. "Something that most of us never got. But this isn't a curse, or a spell... This is a deal that has to be accepted or rejected. There's only two options."

Castle hung up on him.

"Well. That sounded interesting."

Castle spun around so fast he almost fell over. A young man, wearing black jeans, with a light beard, and sad eyes had just come into the building. "I was... looking for the guy in 407?" Castle offered.

The man nodded. "And talking to your mom about curses and spells, and the power of True Love's Kiss." He didn't seem surprised. "You here because of the website?"

Castle's face cleared. "You must be Neal Cassidy."

"I must be. Certainly, nobody else has been willing so far." The man pushed past him and unlocked the cage door. "So. Coming?"

* * *

Kate's phone buzzed for the fifth time in two hours. She checked the screen. **'Iron Gates' is calling you.**

Beckett steeled herself and answered the phone. "Yes Sir."

"I thought we had an agreement about you keeping me informed?" Gates asked. "I'm not an idiot Detective. I know that your mothers case led places none of us expected it to. One of which led to a shooting in this Precinct. So when I hear that your mothers grave, out of every other grave in this city, got dug up..."

"Yes Sir." Kate sighed, and offered the cover story. "I keep my mothers personal effects in storage. I'm... at the storage facility now." She lied. "The place has been trashed. There's no security footage, no prints."

"Do you know who did it?" Gates demanded. "Evidence aside, did your mother have any enemies?"

Kate didn't answer for a few seconds. "Well... she was found stabbed to death in an alley by what later proved to be a professional hitman, so I'm going to say 'yes'?"

"Your mother was killed over a decade ago, and you personally gunned down her hitman more than three years ago. What changed?"

"As soon as I figure out what they're searching for, and why they want it so bad that they'd dig up a body; I'll have the answer to that." Kate promised, lying through her teeth.

* * *

The fifth avenue apartment was smaller than Castle expected; and had fewer furnishings than any home he'd ever been in.

Neal came in and went to the kitchen. "Would you like a cup of coffee, Mister Castle?"

"You read my mind." Castle called back, and then he froze. "How do you know my name?"

"Second shelf, third from the right." Neal called back.

Castle went over to the bookcase and checked. A paperback copy of Heat Wave was there, and Castle relaxed. "Right. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry. Paranoia can only help if you're here because of the website."

Castle looked at the top of the bookshelf, which had pictures in frames. One picture was of a young woman with blonde hair, and a young boy with black hair, standing together in front of a Diner. The second photo was a candid shot of just the woman, looking sadly off into the distance, unaware she was being photographed.

Castle returned to the first photograph, and looked at the boy. The kid had a guileless smile on his face... and a large familiar book under his arm.

Neal came back from the kitchen with two cups of coffee. "So." Neal said. "Let me go first, huh?"

Castle nodded.

"I'm guessing you got in over your head, against something you had no idea existed; and went running to the Internet for help... which lead you to me." Neal guessed.

"How many others have there been?" Castle asked, sipping his coffee.

"Only three have come to me personally." Neal reported. "There have been over thirty to put their stories up on the website. He's been active in New York for a while now."

Castle got to the point. "When you say 'he', we're talking about the same guy, right?"

Neal sat down, and gestured for Castle to do the same, across from him. "Tell me, Mister Castle... Do you believe in Magic?"

Castle took the question seriously. "A week ago, I would have said yes, and I would have said it with a smile. Now my answer is still yes... but that's not a good thing any more."

Neal toasted that answer with his coffee cup. "Magic is power. And like all power, it can be used two ways. For good, or for evil. Where that line is, who the hell knows for sure. Dark Magics hurt the innocent, but can be used with innocent motives, Light Magic can be used to fight evil, but we both know you can't fight evil without doing some along the way..." He held up a finger. "The one thing that you have to remember, above all else, is that all magic comes with a price."

"All power does." Castle nodded. "What I don't get, is how did this... Why don't we know about magic, if there are wizards running around New York?"

Neal nodded. "Years ago, a very powerful and malevolent woman found a way to rule her world full of magic, and fey-folk and fairy-tales by bringing it into a quiet little corner of _this_ world, sealing it up like a snowglobe. The background doesn't really matter. What does matter, is that she succeeded, and for a time, there was stalemate. Nothing went in, nothing went out." Neal's eyes flicked to the photograph. The woman, and the boy. "But nothing lasts forever."

Castle followed his gaze. "Your family?"

"They... were." Neal waved that off. "Powerful people have powerful enemies. One of them, you know as Mister Gold; and he found a way to flip the rules on this woman. Rumpelstiltskin is the latest in a long line of people to hold the title of 'The Dark One'. Neal explained. "He is the personification of the dark side of power."

Castle shivered. "How do you know him?"

Neal gave a bitter little laugh. "Oh no. Dark Magics and Imps and monsters? That you'll believe. I tell you how I know Rumpelstiltskin? You'll never buy that."

Castle stood up, taking his coffee with him. "Ask the people that know me best. They'll tell you that I'll buy a lot of things."

"Suffice to say, that things happened; and he left that quiet, out of the way corner, and looked to see what the rest of our world had to offer."

Castle glanced around. "What made you put the website up?"

Neal shrugged. "I... was interested in following his movements. There aren't a lot of ways to keep track of someone who moves the way he does. If this was an Enchanted Wood full of magic and talking animals, I would ask the birds to keep their eyes open. Fortunately, broadband actually works faster than that." Neal rose from his seat and pulled out a large scrapbook. "You need to see this."

Castle took the scrapbook and flipped through it. It was full of pictures of people. A new person for each page. Beside each picture was a name, and a series of notes. It looked a lot like the Murder Board at the 12th. Dates, times... and the end result for each person. "This is Gold's dossier?"

"The Greatest Hits." Neal nodded. "All the deals he's made. At least, the ones I know about. They all talked to me or found the site for the same reason you're here; a desire to understand what they got themselves into. But they don't all want their stories up on the Internet; so when they email me questions, they go in the book instead."

Castle kept flipping through the pages. Right below their names, Neal had written the favor they asked for, and what was expected in exchange. For the most part, every deal was the same. "Make me rich, make me powerful, make me stronger, make me popular, make me healthy, save my kids, save my brother, hurt the one that hurt me..." Castle read out rapid-fire as he flipped through the pages.

Neal nodded, jaded by having heard so many stories. "We're not a complicated species; the things we wish for don't generally change. It's important to understand one thing: The deals he makes, aren't necessarily evil. The things he does are not automatically bad. The only thing you can be certain of is that they follow a plan. He'll offer you heaven, he'll offer you hell, and he doesn't care which you get. But whatever happens, happens according to an agenda."

Castle was intrigued by that. "Ahh. The Chessmaster style villain. The Moriarty. What **is** that agenda?"

For a split second, Neal's face changed. There was no reservation, no cool collected exterior, there was only pain and regret. "I wish to god I knew." He sighed, and Castle knew with absolute certainty that Neal had made a deal of his own at some point.

Castle turned the page and froze. The picture on the newest page was of a young Roy Montgomery. "What was Montgomery's deal?" Castle demanded.

"I only got the broad points. He found me through the website too." Neal shrugged. "He was a cop who got into some bad business. Wanted out. He got it, but in return, he had to grant The Dark One a favor."

"Which was?"

"I don't know. What I do know, is that he came back a week later saying he'd made a terrible mistake. I told him what you already know: It comes with a price... but you're not always the one to pay it."

Castle swore under his breath. "Kate's mother."

"You know Roy Montgomery?" Neal was surprised.

"I knew him. He... died a few years ago."

Neal wasn't surprised.

Castle looked at the book again for a moment, then back to him. "Can I ask something... unfair? How old are you? Because there are notes in here about deals made decades ago. And Roy was a rookie when _his_ deal was made..."

Neal gave an ironic little smirk. "Let's just say time is on my side."

Castle just waited.

Neal sighed. "Fine. Once upon a time, Rumpelstiltskin asked me for something. I wasn't willing to give it to him. He kept asking, so I told him that... I told him it would take time." He gave a bitter little laugh. "Now I have all the time anyone could ever need."

Castle shivered. "How do we flip the deal on the Dealer?"

Neal sighed. "Mister Castle... You understand what you're asking? What you're talking about is a Quest that many have failed to see through to the end. This is not a mission for the faint of heart... And you don't even know for sure what you're fighting. You do this... odds are I'll be putting your picture in the book with a note that says: 'Died Trying'."

Castle nodded seriously. "I know. I know it's hopeless, but I have to try."

Neal was unconvinced. "I've given people what they asked for before. They all failed."

"Mister Cassidy, sometimes the lost causes are the ones that need to be fought for the hardest." Castle said simply. "I hang around with homicide detectives; I know that better than most."

Neal rubbed his eyes. "There are only three ways to defeat The Dark One. One of them involves taking something he will defend to the death. The second involves healing a cold dead heart... and the third will cost you something you would beg the universe to give you." Neal licked his lips. "How much time do you have?"

Castle checked his watch. "Eight hours."

"Then there's only one way." Neal said with certainty. "Turn down what he's offering. He has rules too. He can't force a deal on you."

Castle felt sick. "That exactly what I was hoping to avoid. I was looking for a silver bullet of some kind."

Long silence.

"The price is my daughter." Castle whispered. "It wasn't a deal I made. But the end result is either my family, or the family of someone I love more than anything." He took a deep breath. "Would he take me instead?"

"If he was... would you be willing?"

"In a second." Castle said without hesitation.

Neal argued with himself a moment. "Aw Hell." He said finally, and pulled a chain from around his neck. "All right, there is one thing I can offer you. One father to another."

Castle took the chain and studied it. There was a ceramic pendant hanging from the chain. "What is it?"

"It's a ceramic shard, taken from the broken remains of a chipped cup. Why that matters, you don't need to know. But it's... enchanted. The same kind of power that makes Gold do the things he can do also has power to oppose him. That pendant will make the wearer immune to The Dark One's reach."

Castle took the Pendant, weighing the options. "If he's given us a choice, then what if we choose one, and give the other this pendant? I choose to save my daughter, and give Joanna this Pendant. He can't take Alexis, because that's the choice we gave... And he can't take Joanna, whoever she is, because this will protect her." Eagerness made him get in Neal's face. "Will that work?! Will not having Alexis mean he has to take Joanna by default, or will we be able to protect both?"

Neal gave it some thought. "I honestly don't know. But it sounds like a plan that could work."

Castle sagged with relief. "Thank you! Thank you so much! Anything I can...do... Wait a second." Castle held up the Pendant. "You were wearing this. If I give this to... Then that means you're vulnerable now."

Neal nodded. "Like I said, always a price."

Castle held up the talisman with due gravity. "I'm going to do good with this. Magic comes with a price? It'll be a worthy one, I can promise you that."

Neal gave the first genuine smile of the conversation. "I wish you luck, Mister Castle."

Castle headed for the door. "Forgive me for running out, but I'm on the clock."

"I understand." Neal walked him to the door.

Castle paused at the doorway and looked back. "Mister Cassidy? Can I ask one more thing I have no right to ask?"

"Ask me."

"You said he asked for something, and you said you needed time? What did he want from you?"

Neal was silent for a moment, his eyes going to the picture of the woman with cool blue eyes and long blonde hair. "Forgiveness." He said finally.

* * *

"You trust this guy?" Beckett asked him soon after.

Castle had gone to Jim Beckett's home and pulled Kate and Jim into the kitchen, telling them all the things he had learned, while Joanna worked on their operation in the living room.

"I don't know anything about him, except that he's been right straight on the money about everything. I didn't even have to say anything, Kate. He's heard this story before."

Jim was unconvinced. "I don't know, Rick. This sounds like an awful big gamble on a weak pair of knees. This guy Cassidy didn't know if it would work, and we're gambling one of our girls on it."

"It has the benefit of being the only chance we can grab at." Beckett sighed. "We're dealing with an honest to god character out of a fairy tale, and none of the endings we're hearing are happy."

"Well, maybe. But if this guy was on the level about this pendant, then we might yet have a way to come out of this with everything we want." Castle held it up. "So. Which one gets the Talisman? Alexis, or your mom?"

Beckett smiled, just a little, and pushed it back to him. "Peace offering?"

She was giving him the magic weapon, and showing she was willing to take the risk with her mother, instead of his daughter. It was the demonstration of priorities that had been lacking since Gold had come into their lives.

"I'll give it to Alexis." Jim said. "I was headed over there anyway."

"You were?" Kate and Richard said in the same moment.

Kate's father looked embarrassed. "It's... Martha invited me over to wait out the clock." He turned to kate. "Your mother was firm on the subject of time. Eight hours with me, Eight with you, another eight to prove it's her and roast the bastard that took her from us in the first place."

Kate checked her watch. "Aw hell. Is that the time? We've only got four hours left."

Jim took the pendant. "Give me a few minutes to... say goodbye."

"Dad, if that Pendant works, then this _isn't_ goodbye." Kate pointed out. "That's sort of the point."

"I know." Jim nodded quickly. "Thing is..."

Kate shushed him. "I understand."

Jim headed back into the living room, and Castle sent her a questioning look.

Kate explained. "He's had her all to himself for the day. But this plan is a long shot, and he knows it. If this doesn't work, dad doesn't want to be in the room when Mom leaves us again... And he knows better than to let himself be left alone while this is happening. If ever there was a relapse trigger..."

Castle nodded in understanding. "I should go with him, leave you two alone for a while."

"Actually, I'd like you to stick around for this part." Kate stopped him. "We're only going to get one shot at this, and the one thing we're best at when we're together, it's brainstorming holes in the perfect crime."

Rick smiled wickedly. "No. That's the thing we're _second_ best at when we're together."

Kate blushed. "Castle, not in front of my mom!"

* * *

There was a knock on the door of the Castle home, and both Ryan and Esposito took up position. "Who is it?"

"Jim Beckett." Came the answer.

Both detectives traded a surprised look and opened the door. Jim Beckett came in quickly, closing the door behind him swiftly. "Evening Gents."

"Sir." Ryan and Esposito chorused automatically.

"Is Alexis here?"

"Right here." Alexis came out of her father's office.

Jim Beckett gave her a look as he took in a long breath. "Okay. I come with news."

"Did my dad find the man who ran the website?" Alexis asked quickly.

"He did." Jim nodded in relief. "And whatever he found out, there's a plan now. One that saves you both. You and Joanna."

"Thank god." Alexis beamed.

"Katie wants you two at my place." Jim told Ryan and Esposito. "She sent me because she couldn't trust the phones. She said that Gold knew how to imitate voices and trick phone lines."

"He does." Esposito commented from grim personal experience.

Jim nodded, licking his lips. "Katie says that they've laid a trap for Gold at my place, and that she wants you both there to cover the street."

"What about Alexis?" Ryan asked.

"We are to keep her away from there under all circumstances." Jim explained. "I was supposed to ask you about that. What's the best way to protect someone without a cop escort?"

Ryan and Esposito traded a look, not pleased.

"The 12th." Esposito said finally. "It's not far out of the way. We can escort you both there, Alexis can work with Lainie for a little while, if anyone asks, you and Martha are there to see your kids."

Ryan nodded. "Good enough. You stay in the building with over a dozen cops, you do not come out until you see us. Remember, the phones aren't secure."

Jim nodded. "We better hurry. I get the feeling that this trap only works if we spring it before the deadline."

Martha was already moving. "I'll get my coat. Alexis, you too."

"Does Dr Parish know we're coming?" Alexis asked quickly.

"No, and we can't call her." Esposito told her quickly. "There's no way to know if we'd be talking to her, or the Freak. We have to go personally."

Alexis nodded quickly. "We should take two cars. I've still got my pass from when I interned there; I can get us all past the front door."

Esposito pointed. "We're staying within one car length of you the whole way there, and we're not pulling away until you're inside."

* * *

"I tried to cover all the bases." Castle said as he tore the page out of his notebook. "Joanna, you should consider it an outline, because I don't know you well enough to make it sound... well, like something you'd say. I tried to make it sound Lawyer-like."

"Remember mom, the point is not to make it wrap everything up neatly." Beckett said seriously. "The point of this is to have enough to let me get a warrant. With that, I can bring in the money trail, the other killings, Roy's notes; all of it. I just need you to get it started."

Joanna looked over the page Castle had written, and nodded. "Okay. You ready to record?"

"Hello." Joanna said into the microphone. "My name is Joanna Beckett, and it's the eighth of January, 1999. I'm a Civil Rights Attorney in Manhattan. If you're listening to this tape, it means that I am almost certainly dead. I hope this tape will never be needed, but people involved in this case tend to end up getting killed. I want to take a few moments now and explain why. My part in this story began a few weeks ago, with an incarcerated Mob Enforcer named Joe Pulgatti; but the crime that has to be accounted for was years ago... This crime was committed by three police officers... and covered up by our Assistant District Attorney, William Bracken..."

Kate turned to Castle, eyes shining. Every dream she had never dreamed to dream was coming true, right in front of her eyes.

As Joanna Beckett continued her testimony, she pulled Castle in for a hot, happy kiss.

* * *

"This doesn't feel right." Ryan said tightly as they drove. "Nothing about this feels smart."

"I agree." Esposito was in the passenger seat with his gun drawn and the safety off. "This stinks. Castle and Beckett find a way to set a trap for Gold? I don't know."

"Actually, I meant that it was weird they'd send Beckett Senior to tell us the plan." Ryan hissed. "Why does the trap idea not work for you?"

"You haven't seen this guy yet." Esposito responded. "I have. And for the record, sending her father makes sense. Gets the plan to us through someone she trusts, gets the civilians out of the way, and keeps her mother within sight at all times."

They both spared each other a glance. They both had doubts about the plan, and had neatly covered each others reservations.

"There's the Precinct." Ryan hissed. "You think Gold would be stupid enough to try something here?"

"One thing he's not, is stupid." Esposito commented. Both detectives tensed as they pulled up to a stop, with the second car right behind them. The other car parked, Martha, Alexis and Jim Beckett all climbed out, and headed quickly into the station. Alexis didn't break stride, but she waved at the two detectives anyway.

Once they were safely inside, Ryan dropped the car into gear and took off at high speed.

Esposito didn't question it. If there was something wrong about this, then Beckett would know.

* * *

"We have testimony, we have a legal precedent to use it, we have a money trail, and it all leads to Bracken." Beckett declared victory. "We did it Rick. We got him."

Castle nodded softly, a gentle smile on his face. "We got him."

In the distance, bells struck the hour, and Kate looked at her watch and turned pale. "...oh."

Castle checked the clock. One hour left until Gold's deadline.

"Well, now we've got a... plan... for... that." Kate trailed off. "Mom? What's that chain around your neck? That wasn't there before."

Joanna reached under her collar. "Your father gave it to me before he left. He said Richard found it, and that I had to keep it next to my skin at all times..." She trailed off as she noticed their stricken looks.

She was wearing Neal's Talisman.

Beckett swore fluently enough that her mother blushed, and Castle had already pulled his phone. "Pick up the phone Alexis, PickUpPickUpPickUp..." He gave Beckett a sick look. "There's no answer!"

"Maybe there's just no signal." Joanna suggested. They both stared at her blankly. She shrugged. "Well, I don't know, the phones got small and weird in the ten years I've been dead; how do I know what makes them work?"

Beckett had her phone out too. "Espo, it's me. Where-WHAT?!" She looked at Castle, color draining from her face. "Esposito said that he and Ryan just pulled up outside."

"What the hell is your father doing?!" Castle almost screamed.

"Trying to buy himself more time." Joanna said quietly, stunned beyond belief. "Katie, your father would never... would he?"

Kate looked sick. "He missed you." She said simply.

Castle had made a quick search. "His phone is still here. But the half empty bottle he showed us is gone."

Kate swore fluently under her breath. "Come on, Castle. We've got just under an hour left to find your daughter."

Joanna was up instantly. "I'm coming with you. If anyone can walk this back, it's me."

The three of them left quickly.

* * *

Esposito and Ryan were going nuts by the time the three of them made it downstairs. "We watched them go into the building, but I called Lainie and she says Alexis never checked in with her." Esposito said first thing.

"I called in an APB on your dad's car." Ryan added. "So far, nothing."

Esposito was already past Beckett to Richard. "Castle, it's my fault. I'm sorry, bro."

"Less talk, more finding my daughter!" Castle roared. "I gave her a panic button after the kidnapping."

"Nothing on the police band about it going off." Ryan reported. "Things happened fast at your place; she might not even have it with her."

"Then we've got nothing, and the clock is ticking." Joanna blurted.

"There's only one place in the city he'll go to make this deal." Beckett said with certainty.

* * *

Alexis wasn't quite sure how Jim Beckett had managed to drug them both, but she knew her grandmother had gotten the worst of it. Martha was passed out in the back seat, and Alexis head was already clearing, her hands tied in front of her with zip-ties.

Jim Beckett was at the wheel, eyes flicking constantly from her, to the road, to the clock. Alexis was trying to figure out where they were going, when he suddenly pulled over.

"Where are we?" Alexis asked in a very small voice.

Jim Beckett's eyes were red and his face drawn. "This is where it happened." He held out a hand to Alexis. "Don't run. And don't try to be clever, I've already taken your panic button, your pepper spray and your phone."

Alexis awkwardly climbed out of the car, with the big heavy book under her arm. He had parked them in front of an alley. She glanced around, calculating her chances of running away, when he caught her shoulder in a tight grip. "Come on."

Alexis looked back at the car, where her grandmother slumped in the backseat. "Is she... okay?"

"She's fine." Jim promised. "I don't want to hurt anyone, least of all you, my dear. But that's not possible."

Alexis kicked out and nailed Jim Beckett in the stomach, making him lose his grip. Alexis turned back to the car and tried to get to the drivers seat. It took her half a second to get the door open with her hands tied, which was all the time Jim needed to put her hard into the side of the car. "You can't get yourself, and your grandmother away that quickly. Why do you think I took you both?" He looked miserable as he dragged her back toward the alley. "You understand, right? One day is just not enough time. The plan your father cooked up is... not exactly airtight. And frankly, I'm not sure he didn't make it up just so that Kate wouldn't make a fuss when her mother's time came." He shook his head. "I can't take the chance that the Talisman won't protect you the way we need it to."

Alexis sniffed. "What's going to happen to me?"

Jim kept his grip around her arm. "I don't know." He confessed. "But I do know what will happen if I don't do this. I'll lose her again."

Alexis sniffed, but kept her chin up. "I-I understand." She said finally, trying to be brave. "Listen... Tell Detective Kate to look after my dad? He won't want her to. He might not want her. He might tag her with what happens now, but... Make sure someone looks after him, once I'm gone?"

"I will." Jim promised.

Alexis shivered hard. "I was kidnapped once. It was the most scared I'd ever been of anything. They say that when you get taken, you should talk to your abductors, get them to see you as a real person..." She looked at Jim miserably. "But we already know each other, don't we?"

"Kate speaks of you often. Almost as much as she does your dad."

"And that isn't going to stop you?"

"What time is it?"

Alexis checked her watch. "Another thirty minutes."

Jim pulled the bottle out of his pocket and took a long drink. "Long enough."

* * *

"Where exactly are we going?" Joanna asked, gripping her seatbelt for dear life.

"The Alley." Beckett explained. "We're working from the theory that dad's trying to make your death and your... life, come full circle." Beckett leaned on the horn. "Damnit, this traffic is a nightmare!"

"Should we try the subway?" Castle demanded.

"By the time we got on a train headed the right way, it might shake out to the same amount of time." Beckett returned. "I'd rather we stay with the car that has a siren."

"For all the good it's doing!" Castle shot back.

Joanna gave Rick a calming look. "We're going to make it."

* * *

Alexis checked her watch. "Ten minutes."

Jim looked at the bottle, calculating how much he had. "Long enough." He took another drink. "Do you believe in evil, Miss Castle?"

Alexis looked up at him. "I... I was an Intern in the mortuary at the 12th when the Take Over Wall Street bombing happened. Yes. I do believe in evil."

"Joanna never believed in Evil. She was a lawyer, she worked with the washout crooks every day and night... but never considered any of them Evil." He threw back the bottle again. "What I'm about to do is Evil, and I'm very sorry for that. She'll hate me for this."

Alexis said nothing.

Jim looked at her blearily. "If she does, I can handle that. I hope she has a long and healthy hatred."

* * *

Beckett put her foot down all the way to the floor, the car skidding around tight turns, breaking laws every second. The car was civilian, but had a siren and flashing light, which was going at full power.

Joanna looked at Castle, who was opening and closing his fists compulsively. "We're going to make it." She promised him softly.

* * *

Alexis bit her lip. "Detective Beckett will be happy. Having her mom back? Nothing would make her happier. Not even my dad."

Silence.

"Maybe your dad." Jim offered. And his face crumpled. "God, don't be nice about this. Please, don't be nice. Don't be understanding. You understand what's happening here, sweet girl? I'm the bad guy."

Alexis shivered. "No. I've been taken by bad guys before. None of them ever shed a tear. I don't believe you're the bad guy in this story."

There was a faint sound of a siren. Jim took another pull off the bottle, draining it to nothing. He didn't seem to hear the tires screeching. "For what it's worth, Kate wanted you to have the Talisman; but I can't take the chance. I've got a way that I _know_ will work, and I can't trade it for one that _might_."

Seconds later, Kate's car skidded to a halt at the entrance to the alley. Familiar faces jumped out, running toward them...

Just as Alexis' watch started beeping.

Everyone froze.

Nobody was looking at the other end of the alley, but they all knew the second He arrived. Silently, they all looked. It wasn't Mister Gold, exactly. He didn't have a cane, or a limp. His eyes were still fire gold, but his face had turned mottled and pebbly, like crocodile skin. He was wearing a rich, red velvet vest, and shiny leather boots.

Rumpelstiltskin stepped forward with a demonic grin. "Time's up."

* * *

**AN**: _Read and Review!_


	4. Done Deal

_**AN**: My thanks to all that reviewed so far._

* * *

All the players were assembled, with the girl held hostage, and the Dealer emerging from the darkness, soon to return with one prize of the other. The symmetry floored Beckett for a moment. It was in this dark alley that all the good she knew in life ended. And now it would take from them again. Either she would have to give up her mother a second time, or destroy the lives of the only family she had left, now that her father had shown his colors.

Martha was staggering, barely upright. Castle was keeping her balanced. Joanna Beckett was clutching the porcelain pendant in one hand, edging around with Ryan and Esposito. The two police officers were circling for an angle, ready for this to turn to open war.

But they were merely dressing on the stage, and all involved knew it. There was nothing but Kate, standing at the halfway point between her mother and Alexis, with her father holding the prisoner, and the Dark Djinn waiting to close her deal.

Jim Beckett broke the stalemate. "Take her." He told Gold. "Take her now, and don't come back."

"I like the bold gesture, Dearie." Rumpelstiltskin grinned. "But the deal wasn't with you."

"That's right." Beckett said briskly, coming forward. "The deal was with me. It's **my** choice."

"I know." Jim said thickly... as he drew a gun, and yanked Alexis close.

Beckett, Ryan and Esposito all moved on instinct; weapons drawn and pointed at him instantly. "Dad, put it down."

Jim shook his head. "I can't do it again, Kate. And you know that. Make the smart choice. If I go to jail for that, I don't even care. Better your mother than neither."

"Jim..." Joanna said softly, holding out a hand. "This isn't you. This isn't you."

Jim Beckett pulled Alexis to him tightly. "Katie, make the choice. Make the right choice. I'll make it easy for you! You have to choose Alexis, because she isn't going to make it either way."

Beckett still had the gun aimed, an anguished look on her face. "Dad! Please don't make me do this!"

Castle's eyes flicked to Rumpelstiltskin, who was leaning against the wall, simply observing with a bland smile on his face.

"What are you going to do, Kate? You gonna shoot me? Or you gonna save your mother's life?" Jim shouted at his daughter. "You know how my hands used to shake when I was drunk. Decide fast before my hand twitches the wrong way, or this gun is gonna go off!"

The stalemate held for two seconds...

"...take her..." Kate whispered finally.

Rumpelstiltskin cupped a hand around his ear. "What was that, Detective?"

"Take Alexis." Kate said, her voice firming.

"KATE!" Castle screeched.

Things happened quickly then.

First, Jim Beckett shoved Alexis toward Rumpelstiltskin. The Imp caught her hand in his.

Second, Kate moved. Before anyone was sure what she was doing, she had yanked the Pendant from around her mother's neck quick enough to break the chain... and thrown it to Alexis, who caught it reflexively.

And at the same moment, Castle lunged for his daughter, not seeing Kate's throw until after he lunged.

Jim saw Castle lunge and swung his gun around to aim at Castle before he could foul up the deal...

BANG!

Everything. Stopped.

Castle looked down at himself quickly, as if unsure whether or not he'd been hit. Jim's hand was shaking as he looked down at the gun in his hand, apparently surprised that he'd actually pulled the trigger. Ryan and Esposito lunged, one snatching the gun out of his hand, the other giving him a swift kick that put him down on his knees. Esposito produced a pair of handcuffs and quickly did his job.

Rumpelstiltskin was still holding Alexis' hand, but he couldn't seem to keep a grip on her. He squeezed his hand around hers tight, but his fingers slid off hers instantly, unable to hold on. The Imp's head tilted as he examined Alexis carefully, as if properly seeing her for the first time. "Well now." He said, unflappable. "That's interesting."

And then he saw the Pendant in her other hand, and his golden eyes froze. "Huh. Seems I'm going to be paying for that cup for a long time." He looked back to the girl and smirked, bowing graciously. "Miss Castle." With a grand flourish, he stepped away from her, holding his hands out, as though to show they were empty.

Alexis let out a breath like she'd been holding it for a hundred years and stepped away from Rumpelstiltskin. Her father's arms were waiting, wrapping her up in a tight hug.

With Alexis apparently safe, Castle turned to Joanna, half expecting her to vanish in a puff of smoke.

She wasn't that lucky. Joanna Beckett was on the ground... with a bullet in her stomach. Kate was working feverishly, trying to slow the bleeding.

Joanna groaned miserably. "Never could hold your hands straight when you've been drinking, Jim."

Jim Beckett let out an inarticulate scream of horror at what he'd done.

"Castle, call an ambulance!" Kate yelled.

"Castle, don't you dare." Joanna ground out. She reached up a hand to cup her daughter's face. "This was always a one day deal. In fact, I'm pretty sure I made you promise."

There was a tragic beat.

"I thought I was ready for this." Beckett whispered. "I'm not." She bit her lip. "Don't leave me again?"

Joanna smiled. "I love you, Katie. I'm not going anywhere. The best parts of me are in you, and your father." She pulled her daughter in close.

Jim went a little insane, pulling against his cuffs, and the two police officers holding him back. "Let me go! Let me go to her!"

Ryan and Esposito held him fast. Castle waved them off. "Let him do it!" He said urgently. "Let him kiss her!"

They let their prisoner go, and even with his hands cuffed behind his back, he threw himself down beside his wife. "I'm sorry Jo, I'm so sorry."

She reached up slowly and cupped his face with her hands. "We were good, weren't we?"

"We were great." Jim promised, and bent low to give her a deep soulful kiss.

As their lips met, Castle's eyes were riveted, and he suddenly realized he was holding his breath, waiting for something magical to happen.

And then Joanna's hand dropped lifelessly to the ground.

Rumpelstiltskin slid over beside Castle, both of them watching the tragic scene. "You thought that would work, didn't you?"

Castle nodded without looking at him. "Hey, you were the one that gave me the book. True Love's Kiss..."

"Can break any curse. But she wasn't shot by a curse, Dearie." The Imp retorted. "What a tender world that would be, if kisses and tears could heal bullet-wounds."

Castle still hadn't taken his eyes from the tragic family parting before him. Sparing a glance to make sure Alexis still had the Pendant, and that Martha was close to her granddaughter, Castle went over to join Kate.

Martha was still seeing stars, but she had one arm around Alexis, and could see Rumpelstiltskin clearly as he sidled over to her. "This is all very dramatic, Dearie... But make no mistake. You still owe me a grandchild. Nobody breaks a deal with me." He looked to Alexis, and his gaze slid down her face to the Pendant around her neck. "Miss Castle, a pleasure to meet you." He said kindly, bowing grandly to her like a regal gentleman. "It wouldn't have been so bad; you know. I'm a monster, but I'm never uncouth."

In a sudden cloud of purple smoke, he had vanished.

A heavy sob came from the left, and Alexis looked over to see Kate sobbing on her boyfriend's shoulder.

Kneeling over the body with them, hands cuffed behind his back, Jim blinked rapidly, as though suddenly sober, realizing what he'd done for the first time. He couldn't even look Castle in the eyes. "I don't know what to say."

Castle looked at him squarely. "Neither do I."

Jim chewed his lip and looked up at Alexis and Martha. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. I wasn't thinking. I'm so sorry."

Alexis gave him nothing.

Jim looked from Alexis to Kate, who was not particularly forgiving either. "Kate..."

She held up a hand and stepped behind him, unlocking the cuffs. "Don't even talk to me." She bit out. "Go home."

Jim nodded miserably, and headed for his car.

Kate sent Ryan and Esposito a look, and without a word they followed him.

It was over.

As the bells struck Midnight in New York City, Joanna Beckett was gone. In a sudden cloud of purple smoke, so was the body.

* * *

Nobody said anything on the way back. Ryan and Esposito escorted Jim Beckett to his home. Kate had told them to check his house for more weapons or booze.

Ryan had removed every blade, every sharp edge, anything that the broken man might use on himself or others.

Esposito had stopped by a liquor store and bought Jim a refill. It was against Kate's wishes, but with the state he was in already, Esposito had mercy enough to let Jim Beckett drink himself unconscious for one night.

The two police officers never left him alone, not even while he slept.

Beckett had gone with Castle. She was expecting to be kicked out of the car at any moment, maybe even while it was moving. But Martha was still dizzy, and Rick hadn't let go of his daughter. Whatever the two of them were saying, Kate couldn't hear it from the drivers seat, though she strained her ears to hear it.

Neither Rick, nor Martha said a word to her when they arrived back at his apartment. Alexis was exhausted by the night's events, and went to bed soon after. She had paused on her way out, and given Beckett a tight hug that never seemed to end. It was the first time Alexis had done so, and Kate returned it gratefully.

Castle tucked his daughter into bed, and the two of them spoke quietly for a while, while Kate waited in the hallway.

Castle came out of his daughters room and closed it behind him quietly, leaving the two of them alone for the first time.

Kate spoke first. "I know you hate me for choosing Alexis, but-"

He put a finger over her lips. "No. I get to talk now." He said seriously. "I saw what you did with the Pendant. You did exactly what we planned to do, with the roles of Alexis and your mother reversed. This was the plan, it just happened a lot faster, and a lot more chaotically than we expected. That wasn't your fault. That was your dad's fault. And frankly... I think this is going to screw up your relationship with your dad bad enough without me piling on."

"Probably." She conceded. "I don't know what's worse. The fact that he took Alexis, the fact that he shot mom... or the fact that he was aiming for _you_ when he did."

"I would like to see your dad roasted over a low flame for what he tried to do to Alexis... But it's not like we can ever tell anyone what happened. It changes my feelings for you not at all, and I don't get to be pissed because I got Alexis back safe... and he didn't get anything. Not even a fond memory of tonight. After what he did... I think I owe it to you, to be the one hassle-free part of this whole disaster." Rick leaned in and gave her a sweet kiss. "Thank you for trying to save my daughter tonight. And I'm very sorry we couldn't have it both ways."

"It came with a price." Beckett said thickly. "We were warned it came with a price, and my mom paid it in full, just like she promised she would."

Castle was silent a moment, and pulled the tape out of his pocket. "We still got Alexis, and we still got this."

Kate took the tape, and hugged it close to her chest. "It's crazy. I've been chasing this like the Holy Grail for so many years, and the only thing I can think is..." She looked at up Castle miserably. "I got everything I've wanted since before I ever met you, we managed to save Alexis, and the only thing it cost me was something I've had to live without for a long time. Why does it feel like such a defeat?"

Castle gave her a crooked smile. "Because sometimes you gotta be careful what you wish for."

Beckett stood close, breathing him in. "Please don't hate my father for this."

"Ditto." Rick said kindly. "And just so you know? You were right before. My family is your family."

Kate fought down the instinct to rest a hand over her stomach as she pulled him gently toward the bedroom. "You have no idea."

* * *

The next morning, Beckett returned to the precinct, and made her report to Captain Gates.

"You look like you haven't slept in a week." Gates commented.

"Just two days."

"Why did you put out an APB on your own father last night?" Gates asked.

Beckett steeled herself. "When mom was murdered, my father fell apart. He started drinking, to a dangerous degree. When I told him about the hitman I shot in this building, he went a little dark again. When I told him someone had dug up mom... I lost track of him a few hours later, and I was worried for his safety. It was... a personal use of department resources, I'll admit."

"Protecting members of the public is what the police radios are there for." Gates waved that off. "Now. What the hell was in your mom's coffin that was so damn important?"

"It wasn't in my mom's coffin." Beckett reported. "My guess is that they didn't know where else to look. Some of her effects went to me and dad, some went to friends, some went to Goodwill... The rest went into storage. I already checked, and the storage space has been ripped apart."

"By who?"

"Not certain." Beckett lied. "The surveillance footage has all been altered." _By me._

"Well, whatever they were looking for, it obviously wasn't your mom." Gates said shortly. "I've just been contacted by the cemetery groundsman again. Your mother's grave has been... restored to what it was two days ago."

"Bones and all." Kate sighed.

"Do you know what they were looking for?"

Beckett placed a cassette tape on the desk without a word.

Gates looked at it hard. "Have you heard it?"

"Yes Sir. Took Castle a while to find a cassette player that still worked." Kate nodded; and placed a tape player on the desk with it. "You sure you want to hear this?"

Gates put the tape in and hit play without hesitation.

"Hello." Joanna's voice said from the player. "My name is Joanna Beckett, and it's the eighth of January, 1999. I'm a Civil Rights Attorney in Manhattan. If you're listening to this tape, it means that I am almost certainly dead. I hope this tape will never be needed, but people involved in this case tend to end up getting killed. I want to take a few moments now and explain why..."

* * *

Jim Beckett looked around at the people seated around him, and then back at the door, where his two police escorts were waiting.

Jim rose to his feet when his turn came. "Hi. I'm Jim, and I'm an alcoholic."

"Hi, Jim." The room chorused.

Jim rubbed his face hard. "Yesterday morning, I had been sober for seven years, two months and nine days. As of this morning, I've been sober for six hours."

* * *

Gates had listened to the tape twice, and then demanded answers. Kate laid out all the information they had, including the things they couldn't tell. She kept Roy Montgomery out of it, but she presented the paper trail, the money...

Gates had asked questions, and received as many answers as Kate was willing to give. Gates had wanted to speak with the Department's Legal Team, and called a few of her old friends in Internal Affairs, promptly dismissing Beckett. Kate had taken the tape with her, unwilling to let it out of her hands.

Kate was nervous. She still had to confess her pregnancy to Castle, she had to face her father, and she was on the verge of ending her fifteen year crusade. It all added up, and Kate was nearly ready to pass out.

As she always did when she couldn't get a handle on her life, she went to her mom's grave.

The grave had been restored, as though nothing had happened. Kate stood before the headstone, head bowed. Every time she had weakened in her quest for justice, any time she had been offered an opportunity that would take her away from her job, any time she felt her absolute resolve weakening, she would come to this place. It was before her mother that she had decided she couldn't stay with a boyfriend when it started getting serious and taking up her time, couldn't take a different job, couldn't go on sabbatical. It was all for the mission. All for her quest.

"I can't tell him." Kate said quietly. "And I don't have to. I took the Pendant off you, but it was a spur of the moment thing. It wasn't a plan. Castle thought I intended to play it that way all along, but I didn't. When I told Gold to take Alexis instead of you... I meant it. I hate myself for it, but for those few seconds, I chose you over her. And then I saw the Pendant around your neck and I took a chance without stopping to think about it." She rubbed her face hard. "Castle thinks it was my plan all along. Even after everything, he had faith in me."

Castle was not the first man to be cast aside for the sake of her Crusade. He had held on this long by becoming an indispensable part of her Mission. It was all for the Mission. All for her Quest.

And if Iron Gates was willing, the Quest would be over.

"Now I know how Roy felt." Kate whispered. "When he realized he was in too deep? He broke free and he atoned. He put it all into the job. He was the best there ever was. And who cares if guilt drove him to be the best cop, most honest cop anyone had ever known?" Kate rested a hand over her stomach. "I'm going to make it right, Mom. You wanted me to. I can't ever tell Rick that I didn't plan what I did... But I'm going to be the best mother ever. I owe that to Alexis' baby brother or sister... and to her father."

* * *

Taking on a high profile figure, and charging him with masterminding an elaborate conspiracy was not something to be taken lightly. The entire case hinged on a recorded testimonial from a victim, and a photocopy of a taped together bank statement from over a decade before.

It was an abysmal long shot, to be taken against a Presidential Candidate. Gates had been a member of Internal Affairs for much of her career. She'd never told anyone, but part of her suspected she'd been sent to the 12th to make sure the place was clean. Roy Montgomery's murder had plenty of question marks, and his A-Team of Beckett, Ryan and Esposito had been remarkably silent on the issue of their fallen Captain. Even Castle, a professional storyteller, wasn't saying a word.

Beckett hadn't come out and said that Bracken was behind Montgomery's murder, but several of the facts were lining up that way.

Gates had dismissed Beckett, and called an old friend from IA, who specialized in difficult legal battles. She had shared none of the details, but given him enough to get a sense of the situation. He had swiftly given her his professional, expert opinion.

"You don't have a chance."

Gates gripped the phone tightly. "I've got a money trail, and a recorded testimony from the victim."

"Bracken has the support of half the government. I mean that literally. He's the Candidate."

"He's **a** candidate." Gates corrected. "He hasn't been nominated yet."

"That's the official story. Unofficially, the decision's been made. Read the papers: He's almost certainly going to be our next President. He'll have an army of lawyers, and he will own the NYPD before he's done. You can't run with this."

Gates rubbed her eyes. "I have enough facts to make a case. More than that..."

"You try to push this, and they will not only play dirty, they will punish you for playing at all. They will take apart your entire department with a fine tooth comb, and they will twist your every word into a damning condemnation. You try to push this and lose, it will be the first line of your obituary. For the rest of your career, which will be about three seconds, your name will be always mean 'the one who was wrong about President Bracken'."

"I knew that before I called you. The thing is... I'm absolutely positive he's guilty."

"You're former IA, I'm legal." The answer came. "You live in a world where the Guilty get punished, and I work in a business where they get away with it. There's no DA in the world that would place that call to the Feds, and..."

"I don't need to make this a Federal Case." Gates countered. "The majority of the murders took place in my jurisdiction... and Bracken is here. He's rolling out his campaign right here. I can do this in less than a day."

"If you can find a judge willing to sign a warrant."

"I can do that." Gates waved it off. "I was IA for enough years to know where to find leverage."

"You do this and lose... you'll never work again. Anywhere." Her old friend softened. "I know I'm being mean, but I'm trying to protect you."

"I know." Gates sighed. "I have to think about this for a while."

"Let me know what you decide."

"If I decide to do it, you won't need me to tell you." Gates commented, and hung up, leaning back in her chair.

Silence.

"Ahh, heavy is the head that bears the crown."

Gates sat upright swiftly, startled. "You!"

"Why does everybody keep opening with that?" Gold sighed, feet up on her desk. "It's almost as though nobody remembers my name."

Gates shivered, glancing back at the door. "How did you get in here without my seeing it?"

"I get that question a lot too." Gold mused. "I've come to collect."

Gates blinked. "Now?"

Gold smirked like a shark. "This is a surprise? You've had everything you asked for, and you've had it for years."

Gates set her jaw. "What do you want?"

"Do your job." Gold said simply. "Pick up the phone and get your warrant. Let Beckett make the arrest."

Gates raised an eyebrow. "That's all?"

"You wanted to Captain your very own Precinct and you got one. You wanted to banish your crippling fear and be strong, and now you're the Terror of the Twelfth. You wanted the very best cops in the city working for you and hunting down bad guys, and your top team just landed you a whale."

Gates squared her jaw. "Ten years with IA, you'd think I would have known better than to trade favors."

Gold gave a single nod. "We had an agreement, as I recall, that I would never ask you for anything that would cause innocents to come to harm. And you said yourself, the man is guilty. Do your job, police."

Gates looked at him carefully. "I did want this job. I asked because... well, I never thought for a second that wishes could come true." She admitted. "But you never mentioned Roy Montgomery getting killed."

Gold rolled his eyes. "Every time something bad happens, someone tries to blame me. It bothers me a bit. Even when I _am_ to blame, to just have people _assume_..." He shook it off. "All deals are confidential. This one is simple. You want Bracken? Go get him. I just made it easy for you."

"Then why?" Gates challenged. "As you say, it's my job. If you can ask me for anything, why waste it on something that I had already planned to do?"

"Because you were hedging." Gold grinned. "I can recognize a desperate soul, Dearie. You weren't sure you'd win, and despite appearances; these people mean the world to you. You knew that if you lost, the entire Precinct would be shut down for good."

"Yes it would." Gates nodded. "So which direction are you taking this? The end of the 12th... or the arrest of Bracken?"

Gold smiled innocently and held up a hand as though swearing an oath. "We had a deal. Nothing I asked of you would harm the innocent. This qualifies."

Gates' eyes flicked to the phone, unsure. "If you're in favor of it, I'm sure it will end in some kind of disaster."

Rumpelstiltskin shrugged. "You were the one that wanted to make a proverbial Deal With The Devil. And by 'Devil' of course, I mean _me_. And by 'Proverbial', I mean 'pay up **now**'."

Gates shivered and picked up the phone. "I'll do it. Not because you told me to, but because it's the right thing to do. You and me? As of now, our dealings are-" She looked up from the phone. Gold had vanished. "-done."

* * *

On the Front Steps of City Hall, William Bracken stood behind a podium, surrounded by flags, as a crowd stood before him. He had a broad smile on his face, as everyone cheered and applauded.

Bracken was finishing his speech when he saw her. He didn't react, still speaking. "...In years to come, you can tell your families that it started right here. This was the moment when history began!"

The crowd cheered. He looked again, and saw her. She was wearing a long red scarf, making her stand out.

He kept speaking. "Ever since I served as a humble District Attorney in this, the greatest city on earth, I have always sought to serve. And this city saw fit to thank me. And so it is with great humility, that I announce my intentions to run for President, of these United States!"

She was at the stage. She had closed in like a shark. His security was on her instantly, but she had half a dozen police with her, and they took position at all sides of the stage.

Beckett showed his security a piece of paper, and was let through. Bracken felt his heart stop, even as the crowd continued their wild applause.

Beckett hoisted herself up on stage eagerly, and the crowd fell silent at the unexpected arrival.

Once she was on stage, Beckett looked over her shoulder. Castle was standing in the crowd. She gave him a look. _You coming?_

Castle shook his head. _It's your moment. Enjoy it._

The exchange took only a moment, and Beckett marched up to her target. She raised her badge, and her voice, loud enough to be picked up by the cameras, and the microphones. "Congressman William Bracken." She spoke with a voice of absolute doom. "You are under arrest for murder; conspiracy to commit murder, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice, bribing city officials, accepting bribes, blackmail and extortion."

The crowd went nuts, but the reporters lapped it up. Bracken still hadn't moved from his place at the podium, his brain unable to process what his eyes were screaming at him.

Beckett produced her handcuffs with restrained glee. "You have the right to remain silent." She lead him toward the stage steps. "If you give up the right to remain silent, anything you say can, and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney..."

She read him his rights in full, cuffed him gently, doing it all exactly by the book, not giving him anything he could use to fight back with in court.

But as they went down the stairs, and her official work was finished, Kate took the opportunity to lean a little closer. "My mom said to give you a message." She hissed in his ear. "'Payback's a bitch, ain't it?'"

* * *

Neal Cassidy sat down at his kitchen table with his scrapbook on his right, and the morning paper on his left.

**The Last Word!** The headline read. _New York Congressman arrested for murder, while announcing candidacy!_

Below the headline was a photograph of William Bracken being led to a police car by Detective Beckett, with Richard Castle close on her heels. Neal calmly cut out the article, and pasted it into his scrapbook, next to a picture of Kate Beckett.

* * *

Once the press had discovered that Kate Beckett had made the arrest, more than a few of them had recognized her name. The movie-famous Nikki Heat inspiration had already been interviewed and photographed... And now she was getting requests from everyone from the 6 o'clock news to CNN to David Letterman.

She ignored most of it, because the more scrutiny she got, the more her father got, and she didn't need that right now. There had been a party for her at the Precinct, and a few clever detectives put together her mom's case with William Bracken.

After more than ten years, she had done it. She had finally found justice for her mother.

Gates was tired of the media circus too, and sent her home for a few days. Kate was grateful for it. For the first time, the overwhelming need to work was silent, and she could be at peace.

At peace, and in love.

She was watching the news coverage at Castle's place, curled up comfortably with him. Alexis was with her grandmother. Both of them had stayed close for a few days, just in case, but there had been no hint of black magic since the Alley, so they were off at a spa, being pampered.

"So, here's my thing." Castle said finally.

She gave him an affectionate smile. He was in 'Wild Speculation' mode again.

"Why did Gold come to me?" He asked her. "Because based on what we've seen, he could have just... Ended the Derrick Storm series on his own. He could have stopped my agent making the sale, could have stopped the publishers, could have given me permanent writer's block. Instead, he asked me to stop of my own free will. Why would he do it that way?"

Beckett paused, turning it over in her mind. "He... wanted you to owe him a favor."

"Killing off Derick storm _was_ the favor." Castle shook his head. "He wanted..." He looked up in shock. "He wanted us to meet. That was the deal. I got a happy ending with you, and mother learns her lesson. He made two deals where he only needed one."

"Maybe he's a closet romantic." Beckett quipped, but it was clear her heart wasn't in it.

"No..." Castle shook his head. "No, he wanted... He wanted to get us together... and then he approached you with an offer."

"That's the part that doesn't make sense to me." Beckett pointed. "If he could read us all that easy, he had to know I wouldn't go for it. Not even for my mom."

"But he had to know that you'd be obsessed enough to think about it." Castle countered. "But... if he wanted to gain a favor from you, he could have just come to you without any of us being involved..."

"Bracken." Beckett said with certainty. "The only part of this whole story that is a direct result of our partnership. If we hadn't met and become partners, I never would have tracked mom's murder back to Bracken. His offer to me involved Bracken directly, and whether I took the deal or not, I was able to put him away."

Castle blinked in disbelief. "Rumpelstiltskin set us up to fall in love and put Bracken in jail? Why? What does having Bracken in jail give him? What does us being together give him?"

Beckett shivered. "I don't know. True Love and Justice for all doesn't really seem like the sort of thing he'd want. Why would he care?" She was resting one hand over her stomach.

Castle noticed the gesture. And his eyes widened.

Kate noticed his scrutiny and quickly dropped her hands to her sides. Too late.

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Castle hissed.

Kate chewed her lip. "Martha told me... Gold's price for her deal was her grandchild. Gold reminded her that there was... there was more than one way to get a grandchild out of your mother... and then he rooked us into meeting each other soon after." She looked down. "At first I thought that me getting pregnant was his plan. Martha's grandchild."

Castle's jaw dropped as all the pieces fell into place. "So when you saw me keeping Alexis away from you..."

"I asked if you'd be willing to let me into your family, because..." She laid a hand over her stomach. "Because both of our families are going to get bigger, and if you don't trust me with your first child, then you'll never trust me with the second."

Castle was floored, stunned into silence.

"But now Bracken's in jail, and I don't know what to think." Kate went on. "Gold strikes me as the type to get two birds with one stone. He collects a grandchild from Martha, and he puts Bracken away, and all of it because he put the two of us together."

Castle's eyes went cold and deadly. "Listen to me Katherine Beckett." He said tightly. "We dodged a Dragon this week. There hasn't been a story told, true or fiction, that could create an enemy so great he didn't have a weakness. We kept him away from Alexis. When the time is right... We'll slay as many Dragons as we have to."

Kate rested her hand over her stomach. "Damn straight we will."

"And when our baby is born." Castle reached into his pocket and drew out the pendant. "We'll be ready."

* * *

William Bracken was in solitary confinement. He'd been trying to get his lawyers, his friends, his staff; _anyone_ to answer him.

But there had been no answer. More than a few inmates knew who he was, and the prospect of killing a Congressman had proved tempting. So he sat alone, in a bare cell too small to pace in, wondering where it had all gone wrong.

"Fickle is the friendship of the world." A spine-chilling voice giggled from the other end of the room.

Bracken looked up sharply. "Who's there?"

A figure slid out of the shadows with a cold grin. "You had it all, didn't you? Money you didn't have to work for. You had hands clean of the blood you spilled. You had all the power brokers of the city pushing you higher, hoping for you to succeed."

Bracken didn't answer.

"What if I told you... that I could give it all back?"

Bracken snorted. "They had a pretty good case if they arrested a Presidential Candidate. It won't be easy to beat."

"I'm not talking about beating it. I'm talking about making the whole thing go away. What if I could make the charges themselves vanish, along with the evidence, along with the bad press? What if I could give it all to you? Not just the nomination, but the victory? What would you give, to have the election sewn up completely? A landslide election win, and you'd be in the Oval Office without question. All those people dodging your calls and pretending they don't know you would be kissing your feet..."

Bracken snorted. "Why not wish for a fountain of youth and a winged horse while you're at it?"

"But if I _could_ make it happen?" Gold pressed, with a cold smile on his face. "Would that be _worth_ something to you... Mister President?"

End

* * *

**AN**:_ And thus concludes Devil's Due. I hope you enjoyed it, and that you'll review. (Preferably, in that order.)_


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